Coiling Dragon Book 19 – Metamorphosis - Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Book 19 – Metamorphosis

Chapter 1, Desire

The Planar Wars. Just by listening to the Chief Sovereign of Death describe it, Linley knew how dangerous it had to be. However, Linley still chose to go! After all, aside from the Chief Sovereign of Death, the other Sovereigns wouldn’t be able to help him!

“Whether or not you accept has nothing to do with me.” The Chief Sovereign of Death stared down at Linley. “Everyone who represents the Netherworld who has accomplishments in the Planar Wars will be rewarded by me. No matter who! I’m just acting according to the rules, not just for your sake. I’m simply telling you about this.”

Linley took a deep breath.

“Sovereign, what must I do in order to go participate in the Planar Wars?” Linley raised his head and asked.

The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly, “The ‘Purgatory’ of the Infernal Realm or the ‘Tartarus’ of the Netherworld all have interspatial doors that lead directly to the Planar Battleﬁeld. The Planar Battleﬁeld is connected to all seven of the Divine Planes and all four of the Higher Realms. Hurry up and come up with a way of going to my Netherworld’s Tartarus. By travelling through the interspatial gate, you’ll arrive at the Planar Battleﬁeld!”

Linley frowned.

Tartarus?

The book which Beirut had given him regarding the Netherworld hadn’t mentioned a ‘Tartarus’ region. Actually, it was the same for the Infernal Realm’s books; there had been no mention of a ‘Purgatory’.

“Sovereign, might I ask where Tartarus…” Linley was about to speak out.

“Hmph.” The Chief Sovereign of Death waved her hand. Immediately, a very thin book covered in black light ﬂew down, landing in front of Linley. The Chief Sovereign of Death stared down at Linley and said, “Since you have the courage to go to the Planar Battleﬁeld, then I too am interested in seeing… if you, Linley, will survive to kill some commanders, or if you will be killed by other commanders who will then be rewarded for it!”

Linley wasn’t angry at all. Accepting the book, he bowed slightly. “Thank you, Sovereign.”

And then, Linley immediately began to ﬂip through the book. The book was very thin, just ten pages long. Given Linley’s memory, all he needed to do was sweep through it with a few glances. A few seconds later, the contents of these ten pages were imprinted deep within his mind.

“So this Tartarus is deep within the Nether Sea?” Linley couldn’t help but raise his head to look towards the Chief Sovereign of Death.

It was too far away!

If he wished to go to Tartarus, he would ﬁrst have to completely leave the Netherworld’s continent and enter the Nether Sea, then venture deep into the Nether Sea before reaching Tartarus. If he rode on a metallic lifeform and hurried forward, he would probably need three centuries or so. This took up far too much time, and…even if he hurried there, the Planar Wars might have concluded already. He couldn’t accept this.

“Sovereign, how long will the Planar Wars go on for.” Linley asked hurriedly.

The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly, “Each Planar Wars goes on for a thousand years! This time, the battle between the Divine Light Realm and the Divine Darkness Realm has already gone on for nearly a hundred years. More than nine centuries remain. You have plenty of time to go!”

Plenty? There was more than enough time to take part in the war, but Linley didn’t wish to waste any time. The more time he wasted, the greater the danger his father and brothers were in of dying a ﬁnal death. In addition, the more time he took, the more of the weaker commanders would die in the Planar Wars. By the time he arrived, most likely the surviving commanders would be the exceedingly powerful ones.

Such as Beirut…Dunnington…Reisgem…Mosi….

The images of these ﬁgures appeared in Linley’s mind!

“Sovereign, then Bebe and I will head out immediately.” Linley said, bowing.

Bebe had to swallow his discontent and bow before leaving as well.

“Go then.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly. “But I advise you that before heading to Tartarus, you should ﬁrst become a Lord of Tartarus. That will also be very helpful to you in actually entering the Planar Wars. Arthurs, you lead the way for Linley. Send them out of the Abyssal Mountain!”

“Yes, Sovereign!” Arthurs bowed.

“First become a Lord of Tartarus, and then enter the Planar Wars?” Linley was rather puzzled.

But Linley didn’t ask any more questions. Linley and Bebe looked meaningfully at Bailey in an expression of goodwill, and then strode out of the Sovereign’s palace, following Arthurs and ﬂying away.

“Mistress, that Linley seems to be quite conﬁdent. It seems he knows almost nothing about the Planar Wars.” By now, the silver serpent Yennaway was all smiles, quite delighted. Yennaway knew a great deal regarding the savagery of the Planar Wars, and the struggles between the commanders. In addition, this was a war! Not a one-on-one duel!

Sometimes, multiple commanders of one side would join forces to attack another!

“Thank you, Sovereign.” The silver serpent, Yennaway, laughed while bowing. She believed that the Sovereign had done this for the sake of letting Linley go and lose his life there as a way of helping Yennaway get revenge.

“Thank you, Sovereign.” The colossal gold snake and his nine children all bowed in gratitude as well.

The Chief Sovereign of Death glanced calmly at them. “Enough. You can all leave now. Bailey!”

Bailey’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly walked forward to the center of the palace. The Chief Sovereign of Death ﬁnally was going to allow him to become an Emissary.

At the base of the Abyssal Mountain.

Linley and Bebe parted with Arthurs. “Linley, before leaving, I must tell you something.” Arthurs said solemnly. “Perhaps you aren’t aware of this, but the Sovereigns all have an agreement. At most, they will give their Emissaries or their children a single Sovereign artifact! Regardless of which Sovereign’s Emissary it is, they will at most receive a single Sovereign artifact.”

“A single one?” Bebe frowned.

Linley was stunned. “Just one?”

But yes, that was indeed true!

For example, the Azure Dragon clan’s Patriarch, Gislason, only had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. The Grand Elder, Gaia, only had that armor-type Sovereign artifact that merged with her scales. Given how much the Sovereign Azure Dragon cared about his children, why would he give them just a single one each? Linley ﬁnally began to understand.

“The Sovereigns don’t wish for too great of an imbalance to appear amongst Highgods either.” Arthurs explained. “If, hypothetically, a Highgod not only had an armor-type Sovereign artifact that merged into his body, but also a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact and an attack-type Sovereign artifact, then tell me…even if this sort of Highgod was weak in terms of understanding the Laws, wouldn’t he be terrifying?”

Linley was stunned.

If one’s material defense, soul defense, and attack power was all powered by Sovereign artifacts! This sort of person would indeed be monstrous.

“That’d…be invincible.” Bebe muttered.

“Supreme experts who acquire one Sovereign artifact will naturally desire a second one! But Sovereigns can’t just give them one. But if they want to kill an Emissary and seize the Sovereign artifact…even if you kill the Emissary and the Sovereign doesn’t deign to lower himself to killing you in retaliation, the Sovereign will still take back his artifact!” Arthurs said. “What? Take it back?” Bebe stared, wide-eyed.

Linley felt surprised as well.

Still, it made sense.

Each Sovereign artifact was the product of countless labors of a Sovereign, who then gave it to an Emissary. Not avenging the death of an Emissary was one thing, but how could they not take back their artifact?

“Thus, if you want to acquire a Sovereign artifact without being obstructed by a Sovereign, there’s only one method; to participate in the Planar Wars, and to have accomplishments in battle! If you kill ten commanders, you’ll be able to trade for a Sovereign artifact you want. If you kill twenty, you can trade for two!” Arthurs said.

“Arthurs, are you saying…” Linley frowned. Arthurs said seriously, “The more powerful a person is, the more one seeks perfection! The Planar Wars only happen once every trillion years! Some supreme experts who, because of their prowess in battle, have obtained a second Sovereign artifact will then wish to acquire a third one. These experts are

extremely powerful! Thus, you must be extremely careful. You cannot be the slightest bit incautious. There might even be Highgod Paragons amongst them! After all, although they have perfected their mastery of the Laws, they might not have a perfect set of Sovereign artifacts!”

Linley had a sour taste in his mouth.

This was completely understandable. If he were to have become a Highgod Paragon, he too would then desire to simultaneously wield three Sovereign artifacts! If he went to participate in the Planar Wars and encountered this sort of freakishly powerful individual, he wouldn’t be able to ﬁght back at all.

“These people are too greedy.” Bebe felt frightened as well. “It isn’t greed, it is desire!” Arthurs laughed calmly. “Only by having a desire will one have the motivation to move towards that goal! For those who have reached the peak…which one of them didn’t have a ﬁrm goal in mind? Which one of them didn’t have a desire? Everyone who can roam about in the

Planar Wars is a supreme expert, the true kings of battle! Although I am a Sovereign’s Emissary, I haven’t participated in the Planar Wars a single time. That place…is a slaughter ﬁeld! The place where experts fall! But also the place where experts are born!”

Linley shook his head and laughed.

“Haha…Arthurs, thank you for telling me these things. I’m mentally prepared now.” Linley laughed.

“Don’t worry.” Bebe said. “If someone wishes to kill my brother, we’ll ﬁrst have to see if he’s qualiﬁed to do so! When my Boss and I simultaneously use our innate divine abilities… hmph!”

Arthurs glanced at Linley and Bebe.

“Just remember! It’s not just the two of you who have innate divine abilities. In the vast, myriad planes, there are quite a few other unique divine beasts who also possess extremely terrifying divine abilities. The others who have reached the pinnacle without a divine ability also have their own powers to

rely on.” Arthurs chuckled. “Alright, I’ll say no more. I wish the two of you good luck.”

“Thank you.”

Linley and Bebe immediately bade Arthurs farewell, then transformed into two rays of light, ﬂying away into the distance.

From the Abyssal Mountain to Tartarus, the distance truly was too great. After ﬂying for some time, Linley said apologetically, “Bebe, if we ride the metallic lifeform to Tartarus, we’ll probably need two or three centuries. I don’t have any time to waste, so…I’ve decided to ﬂy forward at full speed on my own power. I’m going to have to ask you to ﬂy with me.” “Haha, I love ﬂying anyhow.” Bebe understood what Linley was thinking.

It would be rather tiring and taxing on his spiritual energy to whole-heartedly ﬂy forward at high speed, especially on such a long journey. Very few people would rely on their own bodies to ﬂy. It was indeed much faster to ﬂy on one’s own, and one would travel far faster than a metallic lifeform, true, but it was too tiring. Still…what Linley needed right now was time. This was his only choice.

“Crackle…” Linley instantly Dragonformed.

And then, activating the Laws of the Wind, Linley ﬂew towards the northern skies like an azure streak of light. If he were to ﬂy at full speed, Linley would outstrip even Bebe, but Linley also used his divine wind power to help Bebe slightly.

“Boss, have you told this to my grandpa yet?” Bebe asked while ﬂying. “My divine ﬁre clone has already gone to the Forest of Darkness to ask your grandpa. We will have some results soon. I don’t know what your grandpa will say.” Linley wasn’t conﬁdent about this journey either. Fortunately, his divine ﬁre clone remained in the Yulan continent, and so he could go ask Beirut about this.

Moments later…

“Your grandpa has a reply for us.” Linley said.

“What did he say?” Bebe immediately asked. “He should allow us to participate in the Planar Wars, right? Actually, it doesn’t matter even if he refuses. He isn’t in the Netherworld.”

“Your grandpa agreed.” Linley chuckled. “Based on what your grandpa said…we need to be careful and not be greedy. He also said that you, Bebe, should go experience some real danger and so hopefully gain some insights. This would be of assistance to you in improving your understandings of the profound mysteries of the Laws.” Linley still remembered the tone in which Beirut spoke.

According to what Beirut had said…

Men were supposed to adventure. If they were always hiding and afraid of danger, it would be very hard for them to be successful.

“Right. Grandpa has already done enough for me. It’s time for me to work hard.” Bebe pursed his lips.

An azure streak of light ﬂashed through the skies of the Netherworld, travelling at such speed that no bandits who saw them would dare to stop them. Even if they were hotheaded, they still wouldn’t dare to stop them, nor would they be able to catch them.

“Rumble…” A vast, endless sea of water was undulating slightly. Staring into this deep, fathomless sea was like staring at a titanic, man-eating beast. This was the Nether Sea! The Nether Sea which was even greater than the Infernal Realm’s ‘Chaotic Sea’!

Suddenly…

A streak of azure light ﬂashed past the skies above the sea, then in the blink of an eye disappeared from sight.

“Boss, we’re almost at the Tartarus region.” Bebe said.

“Based on the islands we saw earlier, we’ll need just a bit more time before arriving at Tartarus.” Linley couldn’t help but feel much better as well. After having ﬂown at full speed for more than thirty years, Linley’s original body hadn’t rested at all for those thirty years. Fortunately, he was able to withstand this sort of exhaustion.

And in the past thirty years, Linley’s divine clones were all focused on training. However, in thirty short years, his power didn’t improve that much. Fortunately, the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, which had the ‘bandage’ over the ﬂaw be broken through by the colossal golden snake, had been re-repaired quite a bit, after thirty years of effort.

“Boss, look! An island!” Bebe called out jubilantly.

Linley looked over, and saw that extremely far in the distance, land could be seen. “We’ve ﬁnally reached Tartarus!”

Chapter 2, Flamebone Mountain

Tartarus was divided up into a total of eighty one territories.

Although they were called territories, in actuality, they represented eighty one enormous islands. In the past, when the Overgod of Death had created the Netherworld, he had left behind this unusual region deep in the Nether Sea; Tartarus. These eighty one islands were all comparable in size and very close to each other. If one looked at a map of them, one would see that they were arranged into a round shape.

“Tartarus, the gathering place for the experts of the Netherworld!” Linley stood there in midair, stared at the distant islands.

Tartarus was just like the Infernal Realm’s ‘Purgatory’; many experts who loved to do battle gathered there. They were arrogant and unyielding, and they loved to ﬁght. After the passage of countless years, the eighty one territories of Tartarus had given birth to eighty one Lords! The Lords of Tartarus were thus supreme experts! Upon becoming a Lord of Tartarus, one would then have to face the challenges of other experts. Upon being defeated, the new, stronger expert would take the position!

“Swoosh!”

An azure streak of light ﬂashed past the skies, quickly descending on the nearest island. Although it was described as an ‘island’, that was just in comparison to the vast Netherworld continent. If the Yulan continent were to be compared to it, the entire Yulan continent would be but a speck! Every single one of these eighty one ‘islands’ had a circumference of millions of kilometers.

As soon as they landed, Linley and Bebe stared at their surroundings.

This was a desolate, dreary land with almost no people.

“After having ﬂown for so long, I still have no idea which of the eighty one islands this island is!” Linley frowned slightly. The Nether Sea was too vast. Linley had relied on some unique waypoints to sketch out a rough journey. But the vastness of the Nether Sea meant that even the slightest deviation in direction would result in one ending up in a different island.

Their only choice was to ﬁrst ﬁgure out which of the eighty one islands they were currently on.

That way, Linley would be able to be certain of the locations of the other islands and so go ﬁnd that interspatial gate.

“Boss, that’s simple. Find someone and ask. However, there really are so few people here, completely different from the Netherworld continent.” Bebe said with a frown. Linley laughed, “Everyone who dares to come to Tartarus is an expert. Even if ten million or a hundred million people were present, given how large the island is, that still would be a small ﬁgure. I imagine everyone would be clustered towards the center. Oh, hey, someone’s over there!”

Linley’s eyes lit up. From afar, a golden-haired male was ﬂying forward at high speed.

“Let’s go ask!” Linley and Bebe ﬂashed forward like lightning, piercing through the skies in pursuit.

The golden-haired man turned back to look and was shocked. “What fast speed! Not easy to deal with!” Killings occurred in Tartarus at every moment. This golden-haired man didn’t dare to ﬂee, for fear of angering them. He came to a halt, waiting for Linley and Bebe to arrive and halt in front of him, then forced out a smile. “What do the two of you need?”

However, he looked with especial surprise towards Linley, who was currently in Dragonform.

“Don’t worry.” Bebe said soothingly. “We aren’t here to cause you trouble, just to ask you a question. Which of the eighty one islands of Tartarus is this island?”

The golden-haired man let out an inwards sigh of relief, then replied, “This island is the Lotuscliff Island of Tartarus.” “Lotuscliff Island? It seems in our haste to get here, we did indeed go slightly off our mark. We were originally planning to head to Willowshu Island.” A map of the eighty one islands of Tartarus appeared in Linley’s mind, and he immediately knew where he was located, and where they should head next.

“Thank you.” Linley said to the golden-haired man, then said, “Bebe, let’s go.”

Linley and Bebe, without resting, immediately ﬂew into the air once more, ﬂying directly eastwards at high speed.

“Whew.” The golden-haired man, watching Linley and Bebe leave, ﬁnally let out a sigh of relief. The aura from the Dragonformed Linley was enough to cause him to be nervous.

The centermost island of Tartarus…Flamebone Island!

Flamebone Island’s most famous location was ‘Flamebone Mountain’. Flamebone Mountain didn’t have any supreme experts living there, but it was the place which held the interspatial gate leading to the Planar Wars. Each time a Planar War was about to begin, large numbers of people would pass through from here to the Planar Battleﬁeld.

Flamebone Island. The vast land of this island had a few occasional ancient stone buildings scattered throughout it.

“Second Brother, today, the bald man at the ‘Bloodbath Arena’ really was powerful. He has at least fused three profound mysteries in lightning.” Two black-robed youths were ﬂying in midair while chatting amongst themselves about what the battles they had just seen in the Bloodbath Arena.

“He was indeed fairly strong. He has already won sixty battles, including today’s. I wonder if he’ll be able to win a hundred.” The other, slightly skinner black-robed said with a sigh.

“So what if he does win a hundred battles? Do you think he’ll have the courage to go challenge the Flamebone Lord?” The slightly fatter black-robed youth snickered. “The two of us have been here in the Flamebone region for a hundred million years, and have seen quite a few victors of a hundred battles, yes? But there have been only three who dared to challenge the Flamebone Lord, and on those three occasions, you saw the Flamebone Lord’s power as well. Those who challenged him deﬁnitely had the power of Seven Star Specters or even higher. They were far more powerful than that bald man, but…they all died within one exchange! They didn’t even have the chance to ﬁght back.”

“However, no one will have the chance to challenge the Flamebone Lord for now, even if they want to. I hear the Flamebone Lord entered the Planar Battleﬁeld.”

“Right, right. The Planar Battleﬁeld! That’s a place where even Seven Star Specters will end up being slaughtered. However, if they manage to make it out alive with some accomplishments, then it’ll be incredible. I hear that one can acquire Sovereign’s Might, or at the higher levels, even a Sovereign artifact!” The two black-robed men chatted amongst each other, rather jealous.

The greater the danger, the greater the rewards. However…

The vast majority of people would turn green with fear when discussing the Planar Battleﬁeld and not dare to enter.

“Eh?” The black-robed brothers suddenly turned to stare into the distance.

Two blurs streaked across the sky in a ﬂash, advancing forward at high speed. They were so fast that the two black- robed brothers immediately grew alert. They came to a halt, and saw that it was a youth dressed in a long, sky-blue robe and a youngster wearing a straw hat. The youth said with a smile, “Apologies. There’s something I would like to ask. Do either of you know where Flamebone Mountain is?”

Linley knew that the Flamebone Island had a Flamebone Mountain, but had never been there before.

“Flamebone Mountain?” The two black-robed brothers felt their hearts tremble, and they forced smiles onto their faces.

“Flamebone Mountain. Just head in that direction for a few hundred thousand kilometers, and you’ll see an enormous mountain blazing with ﬁre from afar. That is Flamebone Mountain.” The slightly fatter black-robed youth said with a laugh.

“Thanks, you two.”

Linley chuckled, and then he and Bebe immediately ﬂew towards the direction the black-robed youth had pointed towards at high speed.

“Whew.” The black-robed brothers glanced at each other, shock in their eyes.

“Heading to Flamebone Mountain at a time like this? It seems they are headed for the Planar Wars. However, it won’t be so easy for them to get in.” The slightly fatter black-robed youth’s eyes lit up. “Second Brother, tell me, which of those two is someone on the level of a Tartarus Lord?”

Linley and Bebe ﬂew in the designated direction for a short while. They soon saw, in the distance, an enormous mountain which was covered by swirling, dim, dark red ﬂames. This mountain was tens of thousands of meters tall. Although it wasn’t as tall as the Abyssal Mountain, it was quite high for an island.

“Flamebone Mountain!” Linley’s eyes narrowed.

“We’ve hurried all the way over here. At least we ﬁnally have reached Flamebone Mountain.” Bebe revealed a smile as well.

Linley immediately returned to human form. For now, there was no need for them to hurry. After staring at Flamebone Mountain for a short period of time, Linley and Bebe immediately ﬂew straight to the base of the mountain! Flamebone Mountain was pitch-black, and there was no hint of any vegetation about it. It seemed as though it was completely made from black stones.

The surface of the mountain was covered with swirling, dark red ﬂames.

These dark red ﬂames had never been extinguished, despite the passage of countless years. Even at the base of the mountain, Linley could sense the strange, bizarre aura emanating from those dark red ﬂames.

Linley raised his head, staring towards the tip of the Flamebone Mountain.

At the tip of this Flamebone Mountain, which was perpetually covered in ﬂames, an extremely large black castle was constructed. This black castle was also surrounded by swirling, dark red ﬂames.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Linley and Bebe rose into the sky. Within a few moments, they arrived at the gates to the black castle. The castle was completely black, but the main gates were a dazzling bloody red color. Just looking at the door, Linley sensed a killing aura ﬂooding towards him.

There were more than ten people standing at the entrance to the castle, all dressed in black armor.

“Newcomers, halt!” One of the guards barked.

“We are entering the Planar Battleﬁeld.” Linley said directly.

“Hurry up and get out of the way.” Bebe barked coldly.

The ten-plus guards looked at each other, rather stunned. The look on the face of the ﬁrst guard who had shouted immediately turned friendly. He immediately laughed, “So milords are entering the Planar Battleﬁeld. Might I ask which of you two lords is a Lord of Tartarus?”

“Lord of Tartarus?” Linley and Bebe were stunned.

Seeing the look on their faces, the guard frowned slightly, but he immediately said, “Then…of the two of you, milords, which is a Lord Prefect of the Netherworld?”

Linley and Bebe were both lost.

“Hey, we’re going into the Planar Battleﬁeld! Why mention the Tartarus Lords or the Lord Prefects of the Netherworld?” Bebe barked impatiently. “Hurry up and lead us to the interspatial gate and let us enter the Planar Battleﬁeld. We’re in a hurry and have no time to waste with you!”

The ten-plus guards, who had been all smiles earlier, suddenly had cold looks on their faces.

“F*ck off!” One of the guards barked coldly. “Don’t cause trouble here! If you keep causing trouble, don’t blame us for being merciless!” Linley and Bebe, hearing this, were both stunned. Bebe couldn’t help but grow enraged. “What did you say?! If you let us in immediately, I won’t quibble about what you just said, but otherwise…”

“I told you to F*CK OFF!” The guard roared coldly. A long black spear suddenly appeared in his hands, and he casually pierced towards Bebe with it. The long black spear, when stabbing out, ﬂew forward like a black dragon, causing ripples in space to appear. But Bebe just stretched out with his hand, easily clamping onto the tip of the spear.

The guard was stunned. Enraged, he wanted to pull free, but he wasn’t able to.

The other guards were stunned as well.

“Bebe, don’t get in over your head. They are the soldiers of a Sovereign, after all.” Linley sent mentally.

Bebe stared angrily at this guard. “Speak! If it wasn’t for the sake of the Sovereign, I would’ve killed you long ago. Speak! Why won’t you let us in?”

The guard ﬁnally realized how powerful the person in front of him was. Although he was a Sovereign’s soldier, if he really did end up infuriating this person and being killed by him, that would be a terrible death. He hurriedly said, “Milords, it isn’t that we won’t let you in, it is that you truly cannot enter! This is the rule which the Sovereigns set. There has always been this rule, over countless years.”

“What rule?” Linley barked.

“To activate the interspatial gate and enter the Planar Battleﬁeld, one person in the group must be a Lord of Tartarus or a Lord Prefect of the Netherworld; they are allowed to bring people in. But ordinary Highgods are not qualiﬁed to enter on their own.” The guard hurriedly explained.

Linley frowned. He suddenly understood.

The highest ranked individuals in the Planar Wars were the ‘commanders’, ﬁgures on the Lord Prefect and Tartarus Lord levels. Only commanders were allowed to bring people in. Ordinary Highgods were not granted entry.

“No wonder the Sovereign said that you were to ﬁrst become a Lord of Tartarus before entering.” Bebe looked towards Linley.

Linley thought back to what the Chief Sovereign of Death had said to him as well.

“Are you saying that I must ﬁnd a Lord of Tartarus to bring me in, and that’s it?” Linley asked again.

“Right, right.” The guard said hurriedly.

“Are there any other rules?” Linley asked.

The guard added, “The Planar Battleﬁeld is occupied by two warring planes. There are only ‘commanders’ and ordinary soldiers. Thus, ordinary Highgods who entered are just soldiers who must obey the commands of the commanders. They aren’t permitted to run about wildly in the Planar Battleﬁeld! Milords, when you enter, you must obey as well. Only commanders are allowed to independently lead their forces to rove about and do battle within the Planar Battleﬁeld as they chose.”

Chapter 3, Target

Linley now understood.

“No wonder the Sovereign advised me to ﬁrst become a Lord of Tartarus before entering. If I entered with the status of a common soldier, I would have to follow orders. There’d be no way I would have the chance to go kill enemy commanders.” Linley understood that only by travelling on his own would he be able to quickly kill enemy commanders.

To be controlled by others…how could that be acceptable?

“Aside from these, are there any other rules?” Linley asked.

“None.” The guard said hurriedly. “The rules are very simple. Commanders are qualiﬁed to take others into the Planar Battleﬁeld. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, the various commanders are allowed to move about as they please, while the soldiers follow orders. That’s it! As for how many war merits need to be accumulated for how many rewards, it is written on the stone stele by the side of the interspatial gate!” Linley nodded slightly.

Military merits and rewards, Linley didn’t care too much about for now. After all, he wasn’t even qualiﬁed to enter; it was too early to bother about the other things.

“Bebe, let’s go.” Linley sent mentally.

Linley and Bebe immediately ﬂew away from this Flamebone Mountain. In midair, Bebe said frantically, “Boss, what should we do now? If we want to go in, we have to rely on either a Tartarus Lord or a Lord Prefect of the Netherworld. We only have these two options; either to ﬁnd one of them to lead us in, or we ourselves become one of the two!”

“The ﬁrst route is unacceptable.” Linley shook his head. “First of all, in Tartarus, the Lords who are not already inside the Planar Battleﬁeld are the ones who did not wish to go inside and risk their lives. Why would they lead us in? In addition, if we go in as ordinary soldiers, we have to follow orders. My goal in entering is to kill enemy commanders.” Bebe looked at Linley, then began to laugh. “Boss, are you saying…?”

“We have to come up with a way to become a Lord of Tartarus!” Linley said slowly.

“Haha, I approve.” Bebe’s eyes were shining, but then he frowned. “But it won’t be that easy.”

“No, it won’t. There are no weaklings amongst the Lords of Tartarus.” Linley also knew that every single one of the Tartarus Lords, when defeated, would be replaced by another expert. This process, over the course of countless years, had resulted in the eighty one Tartarus Lords being individuals of terrifyingly great power.

He himself knew Reisgem and Mosi, two Purgatory Commanders of the Infernal Realm. Beirut, in turn, was the Lord Prefect of Indigo Prefecture. “There should still be strong members and weak members amongst the eighty one Tartarus Lords. The strong would be like Beirut and Dunnington, but even the weaker ones shouldn’t be weaker than me.” Linley said. “If I were to challenge an individual on the same level as your grandpa, Beirut, that would be throwing my life away!”

Bebe nodded as well. “If we ﬁnd a weak one, we’ll still have a chance.”

“But who is strong and who is weak?” Linley frowned as he spoke. “The other tricky thing right now is that we don’t even know what the rules are for challenging the Tartarus Lords. Also, which Tartarus Lords are already in the Planar Battleﬁeld, and which are still in Tartarus? I have to learn this as well.”

“Even if we have decided already to do battle, we still need to ﬁnd a target ﬁrst. Not a single one of the eighty one Tartarus Lords will be easy to deal with.” Linley didn’t know anything about these Lords of Tartarus.

Bebe had a sour look on his face as well.

He, too, had no idea, but he then said, “Boss, in the eighty one regions, there are cities in each region, right? There must be many people in the cities. It will be easy for us to investigate there.” Bebe said.

“That’s our only option.” Linley nodded.

In the central region of Flamebone Island, there was a city.

Things clearly were much more lively within the city.

In a restaurant.

Linley and Bebe were seated facing each other. Linley glanced at his surroundings, discovering that just as expected, there were many Highgods present here in Flamebone City. But there were Gods and Demigods present as well! “It seems as though they are the children left behind by those Highgods of Tartarus.” Linley guessed. “The two of you, this is our restaurant’s menu.” A smiling God delivered the menu.

Linley looked at him while setting up his Godrealm. The look on the waiter’s face changed, and he looked warily at Linley, who just laughed. “Don’t worry. I just want to ask you a few things.”

“Please speak.” The waiter was still able to maintain his calm.

“Are there any rules in Tartarus to challenging the Lords of Tartarus?” Linley asked.

The waiter gave Linley a puzzled look, but then said, “That’s easy. In the eighty one regions, every single regional capital will have a ‘Bloodbath Arena’. As long as one consecutively wins a hundred battles within the Bloodbath Arena, then…the victor of the hundred battles will be qualiﬁed to issue the local Lord of Tartarus a challenge!”

“Oh?” Linley’s eyes lit up.

“Isn’t that the same as Miluo Island?” Bebe began to laugh as well.

Perhaps Miluo Island was copying the way things were done here in Tartarus.

“I wish to know if there are any peculiarities about the eighty one Tartarus Lords? Who is strong? Who is weak? And also, which of them are here in Tartarus, and which of them have gone to the Planar Battleﬁeld?” Linley asked in succession.

The waiter said resignedly, “Milords, this…how should I know?”

Linley chuckled. Waiters generally knew a great deal of information. Linley thus asked again, “Then tell me, who does know? Who knows the most?”

The waiter said hurriedly, “In our city, there are intelligence reports regarding the various Tartarus Lords for sale.” “Intelligence reports for sale?” Linley’s eyes lit up.

It made sense. Wherever there was a demand, there would be a market. Most likely, many people had the desire to challenge one of the eighty one Tartarus Lords. Naturally, many people would want to know some details regarding the eighty one Tartarus Lords.

“Where are they sold? Take me there, and I’ll give you ten thousand inkstones.” Linley said calmly. “Here are ﬁve thousand inkstones. Afterwards, I’ll give you ﬁve thousand more.” Linley immediately gave him the money.

Inkstones could also be used here within the Netherworld.

“Ten thousand inkstones?” The waiter’s eyes instantly lit up. He wasn’t worried that Linley would attack him within the city limits either. He immediately said, “Fine, but might I ask, when do you wish to go, milords? After eating, or…?” “Right now.”

Linley and Bebe both stood up.

“Alright. Please wait a moment. I’ll go speak with the boss.” The waiter was very friendly.

“Boss, it really was simple.” Bebe laughed as he looked at Linley.

“In a place like this restaurant, where the dragons mingle with the ﬁsh, these waiters will hear many things and learn many things. It is convenient to ask them.” Linley let out a sigh of relief in his heart as well. So this city actually had intelligence reports devoted to the eighty one Lords. This made things much simpler.

“Milords, follow me.” After having taken their ﬁve thousand inkstones, this waiter became very friendly, immediately leading the way. While walking on the streets, Bebe said, puzzled, “Could it be that the eighty one Lords of Tartarus are not opposed to this sort of intelligence report sales?”

“The Lords of Tartarus are experts who are far above us. What could they possibly fear?” The waiter said hurriedly. “They don’t care about this at all. Actually, even in our city’s ofﬁcial castle, there are also reports regarding the eighty one Lords of Tartarus for sale. However, the price is too high! You need a million netherstones for a copy. The place I am taking you two will be much cheaper; you only need ten thousand netherstones for a copy.”

Linley laughed.

For this sort of intelligence report, once a single person bought a copy, that person could reproduce tens of millions of copies and sell them. This was a good line of work to get into.

“Most people don’t know about these secretive places, but I’ve been in this business since I was a kid.” The waiter said. “Since you were a kid?” Bebe said in surprise.

The waiter nodded. “Tartarus has no transportation arrays. Virtually everyone who originally came to Tartarus was a Highgod. We Demigods and Gods were all born here in Tartarus. I am weak, and am only capable of surviving in the city. It’s not bad. There aren’t too many people in Tartarus, so the prices of the houses are quite low.”

Linley laughed as well.

In the continents of the Netherworld and Infernal Realm, the prices of the city houses were extremely high. However, here in Tartarus, there were many remote areas which were completely unpopulated. Clearly, each island had a fairly low population, and so naturally, the housing prices were much better.

But although there weren’t many people here, there were many experts. “This fellow really is familiar with this city.” Linley sighed to himself. The waiter led Linley and Bebe forward in a very practiced manner, passing through various small alleyways and remote paths in a constant advance. In but a few moments, they arrived in front of an ordinary little courtyard. “Here we are. Right here.”

Linley glanced at the courtyard. He couldn’t see anything special about it.

“Open the door!” The waiter immediately knocked on the door.

Soon, the courtyard door opened. A muscular, silver-haired man walked out, giving them a glance. After seeing the waiter, he laughed. “So it’s you, kid. What is it? Did you help me bring a customer?”

“We need a set of reports regarding the eighty one Lords of Tartarus.” Linley said. “Please enter, you two.” The silver-haired man said hurriedly.

The waiter immediately looked towards Linley and Bebe. Linley laughed, then very casually pulled out ﬁve pieces of azurite, handing them to the waiter. The waiter immediately accepted them. “Thank you, milords. I’ll leave now.”

“You just made quite a bit, kid.” The silver-haired man chortled. “The two of you, please come in.”

Linley and Bebe followed him into the courtyard. There were actually more than ten people seated there, three of whom were Highgods, the others all Gods or Demigods. One of them, a red-haired youth, rose to his feet, smiling as he came to welcome them. The silver-haired man said, “Second Bro, they want a copy of the intelligence reports on the eighty one Lords of Tartarus.”

“Right.” Linley nodded. “Oh, do you want the concise version, the detailed version, or…the secret version?” The red-haired youth said.

Linley was startled.

The intelligence reports were divided into three levels?

“I imagine there must be a difference in price as well.” Bebe laughed.

The red-haired youth nodded. “Naturally. The concise versions are ten thousand netherstones. The detailed versions are a hundred thousand netherstones. As for the one with all the secrets, that costs a million netherstones.” The nearby silver-haired man said hurriedly, “But of course, you can also use inkstones to trade.”

“Describe the differences.” Linley said with curiosity. “The ordinary version introduces the eighty one Tartarus Lords, what Laws they specialize in, and how many battles they have been in and won, as well as their living locations.” The red-haired youth said.

“The detailed version has the Laws they specialize in, their ultimate techniques, and whether or not they have gone to the Planar Battleﬁeld. It also has detailed descriptions of each and every public battle they have been in. Every single one of them!” The red-haired youth smiled.

Bebe’s eyes lit up, and Linley laughed as well.

This was good!

It even had the ultimate techniques and Laws which the Lords specialized in, as well as descriptions of each battle. This was indeed excellent.

“And the secret one?” Linley said, curious. “The secret one includes information on the family and friends of the eighty one Tartarus Lords, what they often do, what sort of temper they have, and whatnot. But of course… because this information is too closely held, I can’t guarantee its accuracy. Aside from these written materials, many scryer recordings are also provided, all of them of the public battles of the eighty one Tartarus Lords!” The red-haired youth said.

Linley and Bebe glanced at each other.

Good heavens, this was too detailed.

Written information, paired with large amounts of scyer recordings. This would deﬁnitely allow for one to gain a clear understanding of those Tartarus Lords.

Bebe laughed, “Then we want the secret version.”

The red-haired youth and the silver-haired man all began to laugh. “Excellent. We’ll arrange for a copy to be brought over.” A million inkstones, to Linley, was nothing. And for this red- haired youth, these intelligence reports could be duplicated, and so their own costs were quite low as well. They, too, knew…that many experts would choose the secret level version. And, to experts, a million was nothing.

“Here they are!” The silver-haired man walked out of a room, carrying a large chest. Within the chest, there was a large amount of written material, as well as quite a few crystal balls.

“Excellent.” Linley walked over, sweeping them with his gaze.

“Lotuscliff Region. The Lord here is ‘Crimsonmight’, and he lives within Lotuscliff Region’s…” Seeing a line of words atop one of the written documents, Linley nodded slightly.

“Fine. Here are a million inkstones.” Linley handed over a large piece of azurite. “If the two of you need to know other information regarding the Tartarus region, just come ﬁnd us. We give a 10% discount to repeat customers.” The red-haired youth chortled.

Linley just laughed and, with a wave of his hand, drew the entire chest into his interspatial ring.

With such detailed information, he could now determine exactly who he should select!

Chapter 4, Redcliff Lord

Flamebone Region. Within an upstairs, private room in a restaurant.

“Enough. Unless we call for you, no need to enter.” Linley instructed.

“Yes, sir.”

The waiter carried the platter out of the room, shutting the door on the way out.

“Boss, hurry up and bring out those documents and those scryer recordings.” Bebe immediately urged. After acquiring the materials, Linley and Bebe had yet to carefully inspect them, as there had been no suitable place to read them. After all, they couldn’t just start ﬂipping through them on the streets, right? “Don’t be impatient.” Linley laughed. With a thought, he made the large chest materialize, and it hovered above the table. Linley moved the three dishes and the wine on the table to one side, then placed the thick stack of materials onto the table.

“So many.” Bebe stretched his hand out, grabbing the documents.

“Let’s not waste time. Bebe, you and I will each take half. Let’s all do a quick read-through of these documents and see which Tartarus Lord is suitable to be our target.” Linley said. While speaking, Linley began to ﬂip through a large pile of documents, ﬁrst reviewing the ones related to the rules of challenging the Lords of Tartarus.

If he was going to challenge a Lord, it would be very important for him to know the rules.

While reading, Bebe suddenly looked towards Linley and asked, “Boss, should you go challenge, or should I?”

Linley lifted his head to look at Bebe, then laughed. “Bebe, not just anyone can go challenge a Lord of Tartarus. The prerequisite is that you have to be a victor of a hundred battles in the arena, winning ten consecutive battles each day for ten days. Bebe…do you think you will ﬁnd it easy to win ten battles in a row?”

“Of course. With my innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, I refuse to believe anyone will be a match for me.” Bebe said conﬁdently.

“What if you didn’t have access to the innate divine ability?” Linley laughed while asking.

Bebe was speechless.

If he didn’t have the innate divine ability ‘Godeater’, he, Bebe, simply had tough defense, but in terms of offense, the only thing he had to rely on was a godspark weapon. He would be able to use it to defeat ordinary Highgods, but not a single person who dared to participate in the Bloodbath Arena would be a weakling; weaklings would simply be going to their deaths. It would indeed be hard for Bebe to win. “I…but I DO have my innate divine ability. Boss, your hypothetical is meaningless.” Bebe argued.

Linley wiped the smile from his face, then said solemnly, “Bebe, if you want to rely on your innate divine ability to win a hundred battles in a row, then ﬁrst of all, your soul is only able to use it twice in succession; for the remaining battles, you’d have to rely on using amethysts and Golden Soul-Pearls to replenish your spiritual energy. It will be very taxing. And secondly!”

Bebe raised an eyebrow.

Linley continued, “Secondly, we are going to go challenge a Lord of Tartarus. Thus, it’s best if we don’t reveal our trump cards right away. Bebe, think about it. When you are at the Bloodbath Arena, if you reveal your innate divine ability, then…the Lord of Tartarus would deﬁnitely learn of it as well. By then, he would deﬁnitely come up with a way to deal with your ability!”

“Deal with my ability?” Bebe was stunned. “What sort of method could he come up with?” “Preemptively kill you.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

“I’m not afraid.” Bebe said.

“If he isn’t conﬁdent in being able to kill you, perhaps that Lord of Tartarus would secretly leave the island, and then publicly say that he has gone out on an important matter. He would let you wait for a thousand years or ten thousand years. Are you able to wait that long?” Linley asked him. “My understanding is that challenges…can be deferred by up to ten thousand years.” Linley just saw this in the rules.

Bebe was speechless.

Indeed, issuing a challenge to a Lord of Tartarus wasn’t something which could be carried out immediately.

If the Lord of Tartarus wasn’t even in the Netherworld, even if you challenged him…you’d have to wait for him to return and receive word of the challenge before you could ﬁght.

“Bebe, we can’t waste any time!” Linley said solemnly.

“Oh.” Bebe said helplessly.

If Bebe were to ﬁght, what Linley feared was…the Lord of Tartarus, upon seeing Bebe use his innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, would be so terriﬁed that he wouldn’t even dare to ﬁght, and would secretly slip away. This was actually quite normal. If a person knew that he had no chance of winning but still went to ﬁght, that would be tantamount to suicide.

But just admitting defeat was very humiliating.

Thus, quite a few Lords of Tartarus would choose…to secretly slip away and delay by ten thousand years.

If he didn’t accept the challenge within ten thousand years, then the position of Tartarus Lord would immediately be transferred to the challenger.

This was a method by which the challenger would receive the position of Tartarus Lord, and the former incumbent would also be able to save a bit of face. Logically speaking, this was a win-win proposal, but to Linley, it was not, because he had to seize every minute of time so that he could enter the Planar Wars. The Planar Wars, however, only had eight hundred years remaining. He wasn’t able to wait that long!

“Right.” Bebe nodded slightly.

“Bebe, when I attack, I am capable of completely hiding my power. For example, if I don’t Dragonform and don’t use my innate divine ability! But of course, I still have to show one thing off slightly; my Blackstone Space! But I’ll weaken even the gravitational power of my Blackstone Space. It will be more than enough against those Five Star Fiends, Six Star Fiends, and Seven Star Fiends.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

He would lower the power of the Blackstone Space to the level at which it was at when he was just a God. Linley’s full-force Blackstone Space was something which ordinary Seven Star Fiends might just barely be able to resist, even if they went all out, resulting in them being slaughtered at will.

If he only exerted a tenth of the power of the Blackstone Space, that was already enough as far as Linley was concerned.

“Just by showing a bit of my power, I’ll be strong enough to win a hundred consecutive battles. I trust the Lord of Tartarus wouldn’t be afraid to ﬁght me just because I revealed a little bit of power. By then, when the time comes, I’ll use all my strength. Bebe, what you need to do is carefully look through the materials and see who amongst them has a supreme technique that is perfectly countered by me.” Linley said.

Bebe laughed and said, “Heh heh, Boss, you want to win in a back-handed way, eh? Fine, I’ll take a look and see whose strengths are countered by you.”

Linley began to carefully ﬂip through the materials as well. In total, there were eighty one Tartarus Lords, and of course, they couldn’t all be perfect, invincible experts with no weaknesses. Perhaps some of them would just so happen to be countered by Linley’s strengths.

“So powerful.” While ﬂipping through the materials, Linley couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. “The Lotuscliff Lord, the lord of the ﬁrst island I arrived at, has actually not been challenged in countless years for his position. His supreme technique creates a translucent ﬂame which kills anyone it touches, without exception?” Linley felt his heart turn cold as he read through the materials.

Each of the experts who dared to challenge a Tartarus Lord possessed conﬁdence as well as their own supreme techniques.

But without exception, each of them touched by that translucent ﬂame was killed.

“Boss, this Flamebone Lord is so powerful. In the past hundred million years, three people came to challenge him, all of whom were killed in a single blow.” Bebe called out in surprise as well.

“Bebe, these people have held their positions unshakably ﬁrm for countless years, and the challengers were all easily killed. For now, let’s put these especially strong Tartarus Lords off to one side.” Linley said immediately. Linley didn’t have conﬁdence in being able to defeat those Tartarus Lords who had never had their positions threatened and who had never

been forced to reveal too much of their power.

While reading through the many documents, Linley felt his blood beginning to stir.

So many experts. One challenge after another, one death after another. However, the Netherworld had countless experts in pursuit of perfect. In their hearts, becoming a Lord Prefect or a Tartarus Lord was their dream. For the sake of their dreams, they wouldn’t be afraid to sacriﬁce their lives.

Occasionally, some would succeed and become a new Lord of Tartarus! “So indeed, amongst the Lords of Tartarus, there are a few who are monstrously powerful, but some who aren’t too terrifying.” Linley, when reading through the materials introducing some of the other Lords of Tartarus, felt slightly more relaxed. The eighty one Tartarus Lords did indeed have invincible ﬁgures akin to Beirut or Dunnington.

No one dared to challenge these people!

“Hm, this one isn’t bad.” Linley’s eyes lit up as he carefully read through some more documents. “Oh, an expert in the Laws of Water. Extremely strong spiritual defense. When he uses his divine power, his material defense can also reach a virtually undefeatable level. And his material attacks are extremely powerful as well!” Linley carefully read through this person’s description, and he began to feel a bit of conﬁdence in his heart.

He was choosing an opponent!

Linley completely ignored the Tartarus Lords who were legendary for their soul attacks. Linley had some degree of conﬁdence in his ability to deal with material attacks, and in addition, this Lord of Tartarus he had taken an interest in had developed a monstrously powerful defense through using ‘divine power’ in forming a constant, unbreakable layer of armor.

“If I were to use my innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, to change his ﬂow of time…with time changed, the defense he controls with his divine power will deﬁnitely no longer be perfect, especially given that I’ll also be using powerful gravitational powers on him through my Blackstone Space.” Linley couldn’t help but begin to laugh, and he hurriedly began to review the documents regarding other details of this individual.

But then, his face froze, because he saw a line of words on the second page.

“What? He went to the Planar Battleﬁeld?”

“Next one.” Linley had no choice but to do this.

There was nothing he could do… The eighty one Tartarus Lords were almost all proﬁcient in soul attacks. Even if they weren’t proﬁcient, their soul defenses were generally quite strong. Linley’s soul defense was actually quite strong as well. Given his spiritual energy was at the Highgod level, that he had fused three profound mysteries, and that he had that innate azure glow surrounding his soul as well as the damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, he was already beyond the level of most Seven Star Fiends.

But his opponents were the Lords of Tartarus, after all. Truly supreme experts.

“Boss, I have one here.” Bebe suddenly called out.

Linley raised his head and looked over. “Where is he? Not in the Planar Battleﬁeld, I hope.”

“Nope. The intelligence report says that he is still within his realm.” Bebe said hurriedly. “Tell me about him.” Linley’s eyes lit up.

“He’s the same as you, Boss. An expert of Earth.” Bebe laughed.

“Oh?” Linley’s eyes lit up. Linley actually preferred to deal with earth-type experts, because he had thoroughly analyzed the Laws of the Earth, and so it would be easier for him to deal with it.

Bebe continued, “This person’s soul defense is extremely strong. The recorded battles state that he didn’t seem to be impacted at all by any soul attacks. His soul defense is absolutely monstrous! But he isn’t specialized in soul attacks, nor has anyone ever seen him use any powerful soul attacks. The intelligence report hypothesizes that he probably has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.”

Linley nodded slightly.

Although the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ was related to the soul, the Laws of the Earth still weren’t that strong in soul- related matters.

It was the Edicts of Life, the Edicts of Death, the Edicts of Fate, and the Elemental Laws of Fire which were strongest in the soul.

“His strength is material attacks. He is able to easily break apart Highgod artifacts with one blow! His ﬁsts and his warblade are exceedingly, terrifyingly powerful. Also…he specializes in speed. He is monstrously fast! On quite a few occasions, those who challenged him were sent smashing backwards by his ﬁst before even touching him. They admitted defeat.” Bebe explained.

Linley began to laugh.

Speed? Material attacks?

No matter how fast a person was, within Linley’s full-force Blackstone Space, how fast could he be? Material attacks?

In Dragonform, when using the godspark weapon Mirage in executing the ‘Firmament Splitter’, Linley wagered that the power of his sword blows shouldn’t be much weaker.

“And I also have my innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’.” Linley laughed.

“Boss, I’ve gone through this entire pile of documents. I feel that this particular Lord of Tartarus just so happens to be countered by your strengths. You should have a better than 80% chance of victory. Only, I’m not sure…if this Lord of Tartarus was hiding anything in reserve.” Bebe said resignedly.

Hiding something in reserve?

Someone who trained in the Laws of the Earth, even one who understood spiritual attacks well, wouldn’t possibly be as powerful in that aspect as someone who trained in the Edicts of Death or Laws of Fire. After all, much of the Edicts of Death pertained to the soul, and the Edicts of Fate were almost completely linked to the soul.

“Anybody is capable of holding something in reserve. However, since he is of the Laws of the Earth, I have some conﬁdence in dealing with him.”

“Let me look.” Linley immediately received the materials, taking it over from Bebe.

He began to carefully review these materials. While reviewing the battles undergone by this Tartarus Lord, Linley began to feel more conﬁdent. The specialty of this Lord of Tartarus was his ‘speed’ and his material attacks. The two synergized well, making him almost invincible. Unfortunately…he just so happened to be countered by Linley.

Perhaps this Lord of Tartarus would be able to easily defeat supreme experts who specialized in soul attacks, but upon encountering Linley…

“Redcliff Region, eh?” Linley nodded slightly. “Him it is!”

Chapter 5, Sudden Emergence

Linley and Bebe walked forward, shoulder to shoulder. Linley had a rare hint of a smile on his face. There, in the restaurant within Flamebone City, Linley and Bebe decided that their target would be the Redcliff Lord, and also carefully reviewed the detailed reports regarding this Redcliff Lord, and also viewed his scryer recordings.

Seeing the scryer recordings, Linley sighed in amazement…

The speed of this Redcliff Lord was indeed monstrous. Linley had never seen anyone as fast as this individual. However, Linley was still completely conﬁdent. Those who specialized in speed, upon encountering the Blackstone Space…even if they were originally as fast as a hare, they would become as slow as a tortoise!

“Battles are forbidden within the cities. Only in the Bloodbath Arenas are battles permitted.” Linley and Bebe quickly arrived outside the Bloodbath Arena. The Bloodbath Arena, in size and scope, was comparable to the arenas which Linley had originally encountered at Miluo Island. However, this Bloodbath Arena was round; even standing outside of it, Linley could sense powerful energy ripples emanating from within this Bloodbath Arena.

“Whaaaaaaaaaa!” A wave of excited roars rang out.

“It’s quite lively here.” Linley laughed. “Bebe, let us go take a look.”

“Right.” Bebe’s eyes were shining. “I can sense the atmosphere from all the way out here. It’s even livelier than Miluo Island’s arena.”

Similarly, to view the battles in the arena, one had to pay a fee, but the cost was lower than Miluo Island’s. Each person only needed to pay ten netherstones. Linley and Bebe paid the fee, then followed the corridor and quickly arrived within the Bloodbath Arena. But just as they drew near, they felt a surge of heated calls ring out. “Hm, there should be nearly a million people here.” Linley stared at the viewing platforms.

The viewing platforms were occupied by a large number of spectators. Because the platforms took up a very large amount of space, from Linley’s current position, what he saw was a tight cluster of people, like countless ants. There was an extremely high number of people here. The viewers included muscular men, callous and skinny youths, as well as some ancient-looking old people, along with icy ladies or energetic lasses.

They were either calling out in excitement or just watching calmly and appraisingly.

There were humans, as well as quite a few other races with strange appearances. There were three-eyed ﬁgures, four-eared individuals, six-armed people…etcetera.

“It really is lively! The battles in the Bloodbath Arena should be the most exciting things in the entire Tartarus.” Linley understood that virtually everyone who came to Tartarus loved to do battle and wanted to pursue perfection. In addition, the Bloodbath Arena just so happened to be a necessary route for challenging a Tartarus Lord.

This caused the Bloodbath Arena to have a very special status within Tartarus and thus have many spectators.

Only now did Linley look towards the center of the Bloodbath Arena.

Two ﬁgures were battle in the air above the Bloodbath Arena. A streak of red ﬂame slashed through the air as a blurry saber ﬂashed through the skies, slamming against the body of the black-robed man in front. The black-robed man was knocked backwards by the blade chop. Blood splattered everywhere, and then his head exploded into tiny fragments.

The black-robed man landed heavily on the ground, not moving at all.

“Dead.” Linley frowned. “Raaaaaaawr!” The red-haired ﬁgure landed on the ground, revealing his form. This was a youth with a head of unbound black hair. His ﬁsts waved in the air as he howled excitedly, then shouted with conﬁdence, “Next, next!”

The entire Bloodbath Arena was ﬁlled with joyful calls as well, although there were also many spectators who howled, “Kill him, friend! Go kill him!” Linley, watching this, smirked slightly. The atmosphere in this Bloodbath Arena really was explosive. And indeed…the Bloodbath Arena was perhaps one of the few entertainment areas in the entire Tartarus region.”

“That person’s power isn’t bad.”

Bebe turned to glance at Linley. Laughing, he said, “Boss, you preparing to make him your ﬁrst?”

“Bebe, wait here. I’ll go register.” Linley rose.

“Right.” Bebe nodded repeatedly. He was completely conﬁdent in Linley.

“Oh?” The two spectators seated next to Linley and Bebe, hearing these words, turned to stare at Linley in surprise. Clearly, they knew that Linley was going to ﬁght in the Bloodbath Arena.

“Hey, you are bold.” Immediately, a nearby woman with black hair and red eyes stared at Linley, her eyes ﬂashing. “Fight a few extra battles. I, your Big Sis, will support you!” Linley glanced at the surrounding ﬁgures, and instantly, quite a few people began to call out towards Linley, most of them supporting and encouraging him.

Just because Linley had chosen to sit around them, they all supported Linley.

But of course…

In the end, what mattered in the Bloodbath Arena was how strong a person was. Registering for the Bloodbath Arena was free, but the manager still looked at Linley in surprise. “Mr. Ley, what did you say? Ten battles in a row?”

“Right.” Linley nodded with a smile.

“You can’t do this in a rush. You can’t just arrange for ten battles in a row. After you win one battle, you can choose whether or not to continue with the next.” The manager said. This was a rule as well. If the challenger died during the ﬁrst challenge, how could the other nine challenges be carried out?

Linley glanced at the manager. “Then just watch and wait.”

However…quite a few people would go participate in the arena.

Linley had to wait for his turn. By the time Linley’s turn came, seven or eight more battles had already occurred. That red-haired youth had left long ago. He had already won ten consecutive battles. As he walked out from the corridor, he even swept Linley’s group with an arrogant look.

Linley just laughed calmly.

Suddenly…

An ocean of jubilant roars swept out from within the Bloodbath Arena, while a thunderous voice echoed out: “Our expert, ‘Wood’ [Wu’te], has already won three battles in a row. Now, please allow the challenger, ‘Ley’, to step forward!”

Linley’s eyes lit up.

‘Ley’ was the name he had used to register himself.

“Mr. Ley, faster.” The managerial staff hurriedly called towards Linley, who just laughed. With a ﬂicker, he appeared within the challenger’s corridor, passing through and arriving at the Bloodbath Arena, still reeking of fresh blood. The many people in the spectator platforms at the Bloodbath Arena all called out in celebration. They saw a person dressed in a long, sky-blue robe, who looked like an ordinary neighborhood youth, emerge from the tunnel and arrive at the Bloodbath Arena. He slowly rose into the air, and his opponent…was a man with two scarlet eyes, dressed in a black uniform and wielding a long whip. They stared at each other.

The entire Bloodbath Arena was ﬁlled with an explosive atmosphere.

But Linley maintained his calm, as though he didn’t feel anything at all.

“Boss, kill that kid!” Suddenly, a clear sound rang out, echoing throughout the entire Bloodbath Arena.

Linley couldn’t help but grin as he turned to look. It was Bebe.

Just as Linley turned his head, a hint of disdain ﬂashed through the crimson eyes of the black-robed man. “He dares to be distracted during a life-and-death battle!” At the same time, he moved. “Swish!” He arced out through the skies like a ray of black light, instantly appearing in front of Linley. Linley had yet to react, and the black-robed man attacked without showing any mercy…

A ray of dark light sprang out from the black-robed man.

“Rumble…”

Suddenly, an earthen yellow light instantly sprang out. “Ah!” The black-robed man, caught off-guard, uncontrollably descended. “BANG!” He slammed hard into the Bloodbath Arena, sending shattered rocks ﬂying everywhere.

“Swoosh!” Linley descended lightning-fast.

The black-robed man, trapped within the Blackstone Space, wasn’t even able to stand stably. Linley kicked out at his chest, sending him ﬂying into the air. “I admit defeat!” His voice rang out, echoing throughout the entire Bloodbath Arena. Only now did the black-robed man stare towards Linley in amazement. Having felt the Blackstone Space, he was terriﬁed.

“I am almost at the Six Star Fiend level of power, but I’m not even able to control my speed.” The black-robed man was nervous. “So this fellow wasn’t being overconﬁdent; he was prepared early on…that kick of his, if it was aimed at my head, I’m afraid I’d be dead already! This person is too strong, too strong!”

But he had no idea…

Linley had only exerted a tenth of the power of the Blackstone Space. If he had used it full force, even Seven Star Fiends wouldn’t be able to take it, much less him, a kid who wasn’t even at the Six Star Fiend level yet.

“Thank you.” The black-robed man bowed gratefully, then immediately chose to depart through the tunnel.

Linley continued to hover there in the air above the Bloodbath Arena. He had no grudge for that person. As Linley saw it, for him to be here in the Bloodbath Arena…was already a case of him bullying his lesser. If he were to kill them, that would be going too far. Fighting to kill…should be done against those who were at roughly the same level of strength, as there would be no way to hold back.”

“Ley!”

Immediately, the entire viewing platform exploded with cheers, especially those Demigods and Gods who had grown up in Tartarus. Their cheers were the loudest. For Linley to be able to so easily trample that opponent…his power was easy to behold.

“Out expert, Ley, said earlier that he wants to ﬁght ten in a row. I didn’t believe it at ﬁrst, but from the looks of it…he really is going to ﬁght ten in a row. The next battle begins. Reed [Lei’te], step forward!” That ringing voice once more echoed throughout the entire Bloodbath Arena. Upon hearing that Linley wished to ﬁght ten battles in a row, the spectators who had managed to maintain their calm and silence also called out in excitement now.

Only this sort of expert would cause people to be truly excited.

The second battle!

One exchange. The Blackstone Space was spread out, and Linley kicked the person down, embedding him into the Bloodbath Arena’s ground. Linley won!

The third battle! Still just one exchange. Linley won!

The fourth battle…

The Blackstone Space, even at 10% power, was still very powerful. And these challengers weren’t even at the Seven Star Fiend level. All of them were easily defeated by Linley.

“Bang!”

The adamantine heavy sword struck heavily against a silver- haired man’s chest. Instantly, with a ‘boom’ sound, cracks in space appeared and the silver-haired man was knocked backwards, a large hole in his chest. In midair, before he even landed, he hurriedly called out, “I admit defeat!”

The difference between them was too great!

“You aren’t bad.”

Linley laughed calmly, looking at him. “You forced me to use my sword.”

Linley had decided long ago that in the Bloodbath Arena, even if he had to use a weapon, he would just use his adamantine heavy sword or Bloodviolet. As for his godspark weapon, ‘Mirage’, that would only be used against the Lord of Tartarus.

“A victor of ten battles!!!” The ofﬁciator for the Bloodbath Arena called out in a high, clear voice. “Ley said he would ﬁght ten in a row, and he has indeed won ten! Ley’s power is indeed very great. As I see it, perhaps he will win a hundred battles!” It was much harder to win a hundred battles in a row. After all, many experts normally couldn’t even be bothered to ﬁght.

Only after meeting other experts would they ﬁght.

Quite a few people throughout the massive viewing platforms howled jubilantly and excitedly.

“Ley!”

Their jubilant cries rose up and crashed down like waves, but Linley just chuckled. “Tomorrow, we continue.” Linley said calmly to himself, then turned and left through the challenger’s tunnel.

The Bloodbath Arena was a place which the experts of the Redcliff Region paid very close attention to. Within the Redcliff Region, generally speaking, it was rare for even a single expert to win a hundred battles despite the passage of many years. This was because, each time, after a challenger won a few dozen battles in a row, some true experts would feel their hands get itchy and they would come to participate in the battles. These experts wouldn’t just come singly; often, they would come out in succession, causing the end result to be that very few would win a hundred successive battles.

As time moved on…

The name ‘Ley’ began to be known to quite a few truly powerful experts of the Redcliff Region.

One day after yet another day of consecutive victories.

On the ﬁfth day, he still won ten victories.

On the sixth day, he still won ten victories!

Linley’s successes clearly didn’t require too much effort. This caused quite a few people to understand that ‘Ley’ deﬁnitely had to have more power than just this! Thus, the past few days, a very large number of people came to watch at the Bloodbath Arena. Many of them had come to watch Linley! Many of them waited eagerly…hoping that Linley would to be able to continue and cause some truly powerful experts to come and battle him.

And ﬁnally…an expert whom Linley would take seriously appeared.

Chapter 6, Unstoppable

Redcliff Region. The Lord’s estate.

Currently, the Redcliff Lord was reclining on his chair, his eyes shut.

The Redcliff Lord was only 1.7 meters tall, and in the Netherworld, he would indeed be considered a very small fellow. He looked very thin, and he was currently dressed in a sleeveless shirt, revealing his wiry arms. Although the shirt was over his body, it wasn’t able to cover up the heroic, mighty aura that emanated from him.

This was the Redcliff Lord, one of the eighty one Lords of Tartarus.

“Your Lordship.” A black-robed, silver-haired youth walked to his side and bowed. “Mm?” The Redcliff Lord opened his eyes. His pupils were vertical, and they were violet! They gave off a disturbing feeling.

“Your Lordship, an expert has appeared within the Bloodbath Arena of our Redcliff region.” The black-robed, silver-haired youth said respectfully. “This person is called ‘Ley’, and he has already won sixty battles. From his performance in these sixty battles, I expect that this person already has the power of a Seven Star Specter. He specializes in the Laws of the Earth. Your Lordship, will you go watch him battle?”

“Laws of the Earth?” The Redcliff Lord raised a black eyebrow, but then with a calm laugh shut his eyes again. “Since he is an expert in the Laws of the Earth, there’s no need for me to go in person. You, Ganmoly [Gan’mo’lei], can go handle this matter. At the same time, record it all down with scryer recordings. If anything appears that causes you to feel surprised, bring it for me to watch.”

“Yes, your Lordship.” Ganmoly bowed. Ganmoly knew very well that although the Redcliff Lord had yet to reach the stage of being a Paragon in the Laws of the Earth, the Redcliff Lord already knew all the various types of attacks of the Laws of the Earth.

However, what the Redcliff Lord didn’t realize was…

Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ had already exceeded the bounds of the profound mysteries. This was the innate divine ability of Reisgem, and Linley had to rely on the ‘black stone’ in order to use it.

The seventh day Linley was at the Bloodbath Arena.

On this day, the Bloodbath Arena had an unusually high number of people watching. It had been a long time since someone in the Redcliff Region had consecutively defeated so many people. Many people wanted to watch…and see how far this man named ‘Ley’ would be able to go, and if he really had the power of a Seven Star Specter or not. “This battle is over now. Haha, everyone has been waiting for a long time, I’m sure. Next will be our victor of sixty consecutive battles; ‘Ley’!” The voice echoed brightly.

Suddenly…

The entire watching platform began to ring out with jubilant cries. The previous battles were fairly low level, and some people were too bored to watch. But upon hearing that ‘Ley’ was about to appear, all of their eyes lit up and they called out nonstop. And at this time, in an unremarkable corner of the watching platform, a black-robed, silver-haired youth and a middle-aged black-haired man were sitting, shoulder to shoulder.

“Ganmoly.” The middle-aged black-haired man laughed calmly. “Are you here at the orders of his Lordship?”

“I’m just watching.” Ganmoly laughed. “This person trains in the Laws of the Earth. He’s not yet shown himself to be worth his Lordship’s attention. Right, Sheppard [Xi’ao’bo’er’de], are you interested in this Ley?” “I just came today to watch. However, my old friend, ‘Pam’ [Bo’mu] has already gone to register. If he is able to defeat Pam, then I will go test to see how strong this kid is!” The black- haired Sheppard said with a calm laugh. Ganmoly, hearing this, said with gleaming eyes, “Pam is going to participate?”

As the two chatted…

“Bang!” The adamantine heavy sword slammed into the opponent, sending the person ﬂying back.

“I admit defeat!” The man called out hurriedly.

Linley retracted his sword, still standing there in midair. He shook his head mentally. “I have to win a hundred battles to challenge a Lord of Tartarus. This does indeed waste a good bit of time.” Linley had already undergone seventy one battles, but he had yet to feel even a hint of danger. The strongest of these opponents were at most at the Six Star Fiend level. When Linley was a God, he was already capable of killing ordinary Seven Star Fiends.

Now that he was a Highgod, he already had the power of an ordinary Asura. Against these people, of course he found it very easy.

“Everyone! Let me announce some news that will shock and please all of you! Ley’s next opponent is a former victor of a hundred battles here at the Redcliff Region; our very own Mr. Pam!” Excited cheers swept the entire Bloodbath Arena, but then, the entire arena went silent.

Even the chatting Ganmoly and Sheppard turned to look.

“Pam is entering the ﬁeld of battle.” The black-haired Sheppard began to laugh.

The momentarily quiet Bloodbath Arena suddenly once more turned raucous. The cheers rang out unabated, and many of the viewers bellowed, “Ley, defeat that Pam!!!” “PAM!!!”

“LEY!!!”

The entire Bloodbath Arena was at a boiling point of activity. Even many formerly calm individuals were now shouting to the point of hoarseness, each screaming their support for one of the two. Clearly, the shouts for ‘Ley’, who had recently won everyone’s admiration, were somewhat louder. But Pam was also a former victor of a hundred battles.

A battle against two experts?

Who would win?

Such a large battle…the level of activity in the Bloodbath Arena reached a fevered level. “Oh, a former victor of a hundred battles?” Linley raised an eyebrow, turning to look. At this moment, Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind as well. “Boss, this is a former victor of a hundred battles. Don’t be reckless. If you were to lose…then it’s my turn. I’ll go challenge the Tartarus Lord.”

Linley, hearing this, couldn’t help but laugh.

“Swoosh!” A gray blur suddenly shot out from the tunnel, then hung there in midair. Linley looked carefully…

This Pam was dressed in a long green robe. He had a pair of downwards drooping white eyebrows. Although his hair and eyebrows were white, his face was like that of a youth’s. Pam had a perpetual smile on his face, and he was currently staring at Linley with narrowed eyes. “Ley? It’s so hard to ﬁnd a good opponent, here at the Redcliff Region. Don’t disappoint me.”

Linley laughed calmly.

“Make your move.” Linley said.

“Oh, quite arrogant, eh?” Pam laughed calmly. He suddenly swept out with his hand, and a green light sprang up.

Linley and Pam’s battle caused quite a few people on the watching platform to focus their attention. Even Bebe stared ﬁxedly at the arena. Only Sheppard and Ganmoly continued to chat silently through divine sense while watching as the great battle was about to begin.

“Ganmoly, who do you say will be the victor?” Sheppard sent mentally.

“It should be Ley.” Ganmoly sent back. “This Ley…I have the feeling that his power is at least on your level. As for Pam, although he has reached the Seven Star Specter level, he is just barely at that level. Although both his physical attacks and his spiritual attacks can be considered strong, they aren’t monstrously strong. However, he trains in the Laws of Water. It won’t be easy to defeat him. Pam should be able to hold on for a period of time.” “I was thinking the same.”

Sheppard laughed as well. “Originally, when I beat Pam, I had to spend quite a bit of effort. An expert who trains in the Laws of Water is very hard to deal with.”

But as the two were discussing this matter, their facial expressions suddenly froze.

The entire Bloodbath Arena had turned silent. And then, an explosion of raucous noise. Many people began to chat amongst themselves, and the entire Bloodbath Arena turned cacophonous. Nobody could understand what they had just seen. It wasn’t just them who didn’t understand it…

Even Ganmoly and Sheppard didn’t understand it.

“How could that have happened?” Ganmoly said in disbelief. “Pam…did he lose on purpose?” Sheppard didn’t understand either.

Just now, what happened during the battle was this. First, Linley had used his Blackstone Space to entrap his opponent. Pam was indeed strong; he was able to force himself to stay up and not crash downwards. But his speed was now incomparable to Linley’s. Linley, relying on superior speed and Bloodviolet, began to attack.

But clearly, Pam’s defense was extremely strong. Without being able to Dragonform, he was unable to breach Pam’s defense with his attacks.

Linley’s Dragonform was one of his trump cards. Linley wasn’t willing to use his Dragonform, and so he used his ‘Spiritual Chaos’ instead. After reaching the Highgod level, Linley’s Spiritual Chaos technique, once used, would cause even the likes of Pam, a Seven Star Fiend level expert, to have his soul enter a bewildered state.

In that brief instant, Linley used a single blow of the sword to sever Pam’s head.

Pam’s head ﬂew upwards into the air, hurriedly reconnecting with the body.

“Thank you!” Pam said gratefully. If Linley had struck his head instead of his neck, Pam would have died.

He didn’t lose unfairly. The Spiritual Chaos of the Blackstone Field was the supreme technique of Purgatory Commander Reisgem. It was natural for him to lose to this technique.

In the viewing platform.

“Whooosh!” Sheppard suddenly stood up, but one of his clones sat down. He stared at the distant Linley, standing there in the air above the Bloodbath Arena. “Ganmoly, I’ll go test him.” He left behind his divine spark, as he was worried that Linley might use a killing technique. Although prior to this, Linley had shown mercy, that didn’t mean he would always show mercy. “Be careful!” Ganmoly said hurriedly.

“Don’t worry. It won’t be so simple for him to beat me.” Sheppard said, and he walked forward.

In the Bloodbath Arena, many people began to call out in joy.

Many of them were now treating Linley as a model for themselves! A target for them to surpass!

“Everyone, today, Ley has already consecutively won nine times in a row, and one of his opponents was Pam! However, even Pam lost to Ley. And now, the tenth challenger for today is standing right beside me. To be honest, I am already excited over the battle that is about to begin. The person by my side, is an expert even more powerful than Pam! Everyone, can you guess who he is?”

Immediately, everyone in the Bloodbath Arena turned to look, and many of them began to call out excitedly. It was already very rare for them be able to watch a single battle between Seven Star Specter level experts. But today, there would be a second? It seemed as though this one would be even more powerful!

“He…is Sheppard!” The host’s voice rang out.

In the air above the Bloodbath Arena.

Linley still stood there calmly in midair, looking at the many spectators and how they were excitedly shouting. Linley was rather curious. “Sheppard? How powerful could he be?” Linley looked towards the entry passage, and saw a black-haired, middle-aged man drift over. As soon as he ﬂew into the Bloodbath Arena, he looked towards Linley.

“I didn’t expect that you were capable of soul attacks, and such unusual ones at that.” The black-haired, middle-aged man said. Just now, outside the challenger’s tunnel, he had already met Pam and chatted with him. However, Pam only thought that Linley had used some sort of strange soul attack to cause him to enter a dazed state.

Linley smiled slightly. “Enough chitchat. Let’s ﬁght.”

Sheppard frowned.

“Hmph.” Angered, he narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Swish!” “Swish!”

Two rays of black light suddenly shot out from Sheppard’s eyes, striking directly towards Linley. Linley couldn’t help but retreat, ﬂying at high speed. “What an unusual spiritual attack.” The speed of the spiritual attack was too fast. Linley wasn’t even able to dodge before the two black rays of light entered his body.

“Crackle…” Linley’s spiritual energy struck out like the Voidwave Sword, blocking in the area of the ﬂaw. As for the black light, the majority of it exhausted itself against the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, while the remaining bit of power wasn’t able to threaten Linley at all.

The Blackstone Space and the Spiritual Chaos almost instantly encompassed the enemy.

Sheppard’s spiritual prowess wasn’t particularly impressive. He, too, fell into a dazed state, and just stood there, letting Linley slice off his head with one blow.

“You lose!” Linley said calmly.

The entire Bloodbath Arena once more fell silent.

“What happened?” Ganmoly asked repeatedly.

“What a powerful soul attack.” Sheppard shook his head. “I was instantly bewildered as well and defeated.” “Soul attack?” Ganmoly felt relaxed now. “This Ley is indeed strong, but if he encounters his Lordship, he will deﬁnitely lose.”

His Lordship, the Redcliff Lord, feared no spiritual attacks. Actually, this was one of the reasons why Linley displayed his ‘Spiritual Chaos’ attack. When seeing Linley use this technique…the Redcliff Lord wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of fear towards Linley.

After the two major battles of the seventh day, no one further was able to hold Linley back from winning. Linley consecutively passed through the eighth, ninth, and tenth days. A complete success! He became the only victor of a hundred battles which the Redcliff Region had seen in recent years.

Chapter 7, A Blaze

Above the Bloodbath Arena.

Many people were chatting amongst themselves, and the topic was virtually all related to Linley, currently standing above the Bloodbath Arena. Because just now, Linley had successfully gained his hundredth victory. But his success caused them to all understand…that most likely in the future, it would be hard for them to see Linley ﬁght again.

“Hey, just now, you were shouting so excitedly, ‘Boss’, ‘Boss’. Do you know Lord Ley?” A silver-haired young lady glanced sideways at Bebe.

“Of course I know him. He’s my Boss.” Bebe rubbed his nose and said conﬁdently.

“Yeah, sure. And he’s my elder brother.” The silver-haired woman snorted, and then continued to look at Linley with a rather worshipful gaze. The silver-haired woman grew up in Tartarus and was affected by the local environment. The admiration the people here felt towards experts was even stronger than in the other parts of the Netherworld.

“She doesn’t believe me.” Bebe was speechless in the face of the silver-haired woman’s disbelief.

Right at this moment…

A deep voice echoed in the Bloodbath Arena. “Everyone!” The voice continued to ring out as the person’s ﬁgure ﬂew to the air above the Bloodbath Arena, standing next to Linley. This person was dressed in a long golden robe, and had a head full of long, dazzling gold hair. He was laughing while saying clearly, “Today, yet another victor of a hundred battles has emerged from our Bloodbath Arena. He is…Ley!”

Linley smiled and made a nodding gesture towards the golden-haired man.

Linley was waiting to be given his proof of having won a hundred battles…the ‘Bloodbath Emblem’. With the Bloodbath Emblem, he would truly have the qualiﬁcations to go challenge a Lord of Tartarus.

“Everyone, quiet!” The golden-haired man said in a clear voice.

Instantly, the spectators of the Bloodbath Arena all halted their conversations and looked over.

“Right now, I will give this medal of honor, the ‘Bloodbath Emblem’, to our victor of a hundred battles, Ley!” As he spoke, the gold-haired man withdrew a six-pointed star-shaped red emblem and, with a smile, gave it to Linley. “Ley, from today onwards, your name and your victories will be displayed within our Bloodbath Arena.”

Linley laughed and accepted it.

“So this is it?” Linley lowered his head to give it a glance. The reason he had fought these hundred battles was for the sake of becoming qualiﬁed to challenge a Lord of Tartarus.

“But of course, this Bloodbath Medallion also represents that you now are qualiﬁed to go challenge our mighty Lord of the Redcliff Region!” The golden-haired man said with a loud, clearly laugh. “Mr. Ley, I ask you this. Are you going to go challenge our Lord of Redcliff Region?” These words caused the entire Bloodbath Arena to once more turn rowdy.”

“Challenge his Lordship!”

“Challenge him!”

“Ley, challenge his Lordship!”

Many of the spectators in the Bloodbath Arena began to cry out. However, everyone understood that this was a question that would be asked each time the Bloodbath Medallion was handed out. As for the spectators, they were just shouting to be rowdy. Everyone hoped to see a battle over the position of Lord of Tartarus. But they all understood… This was just a formality.

It was extremely rare for someone to actually challenge a Lord of Tartarus. Generally speaking, it would happen only a few times every hundred million years. Each time someone dared to challenge a Lord of Tartarus, that person generally had a certain degree of conﬁdence as well as some special skills to rely on. Although Linley seemed quite good, as the spectators saw it, he was still quite a ways off from the level of a Lord of Tartarus.

After all, whether it was Pam or Sheppard, compared to a Lord of Tartarus, they were like infants compared to an adult.

“You said Ley is your Boss. Then tell me, will Ley challenge the Tartarus Lord?” The silver-haired lady laughed while looking at Bebe, and Bebe nodded with absolute certainty. “Without question, my Boss will deﬁnitely challenge the Tartarus Lord!”

“Haha…” The silver-haired lady immediately began to laugh softly. “You don’t even know how to lie properly.” “If you don’t believe it, just watch.” Bebe said.

“To tell the truth, the reason I have come to the Bloodbath Arena to ﬁght…!” Linley’s voice suddenly rang out.

The conversations around the Bloodbath Arena suddenly lowered in volume.

Linley had a smile on his face. “…was precisely for the sake of becoming qualiﬁed to challenge the Redcliff Lord!”

Instantly, everyone fell silent.

Everyone looked towards Linley. The golden-haired man by Linley’s side looked at him in disbelief. “No way. This Mr. Ley…can it be that today, he really is going to challenge the Redcliff Lord? Too crazy, too crazy!” Although victors of a hundred battles were powerful, there would be one every so often.

But someone who would challenge a Lord of Tartarus? This was something which would happen a few times every hundred million years.

“No way.” The silver-haired lady grew nervous. She couldn’t help but glance sideways at Bebe, who just laughed conﬁdently towards her.

Everyone listened carefully and eagerly.

“Now, I have ﬁnally acquired the necessary qualiﬁcations.” Linley stared at them. “Today, in front of everyone, I publicly proclaim! That I…am formally issuing the Redcliff Lord…a challenge!”

“CHALLENGE!!!”

His voice echoed throughout the Bloodbath Arena. Everyone was silent for a long time.

This was the ﬁrst time in the past ten million years that someone within the Redcliff Region had issued a challenge to the mighty Redcliff Lord!

The Redcliff Lord was exalted and powerful!

Everyone who challenged him had perished.

But the many experts amongst the spectators wouldn’t give up. For the sake of their dreams, their goals! Even if they had to die, they would constantly challenge themselves, constantly clash…there would eventually come the day when they would defeat the Redcliff Lord and become the next Redcliff Lord. However, on this road…many, many would die!

More than a million spectators were present, and they were staring at Linley, in the center.

In their eyes, Linley was a fearless warrior, a new challenger for the position of Lord of Tartarus!

“Ley!” The silver-haired elder was the ﬁrst to call out solemnly.

“Ley!” Immediately, a large number of people in the surrounding area called out as well.

“LEY!” The entire Bloodbath Arena reverberated with this uniﬁed chorus.

It was like a thunderclap splitting the world. These people used whatever methods were available to them to express encouragement to Linley! In their eyes, everyone who dared to challenge a Lord of Tartarus was a hero! A fearless hero!

Everyone in the Redcliff Region wished to challenge a Lord of Tartarus and become the next one, but they all knew that their own level of strength was insufﬁcient, and so they didn’t have the courage to do so. But deep in their hearts…they still had this desire. For Linley to now go make the challenge…this group of people very naturally came to feel that Linley was their representative.

They hoped to see Linley win!

Even though deep in their hearts, they believed that Linley would die, just like the previous challengers to the Redcliff Lord.

Within the Bloodbath Arena, in front of more than a million people, the winner of a hundred consecutive battles, ‘Ley’, thus publicly issued his challenge to the Redcliff Lord! This news quickly swept through the entire Redcliff Region, like a blazing wildﬁre burning through a desolate, dry prairie. The hundred million people populating the Redcliff Region all were discussing this.

They were all eager to watch it!

Eager for Linley to duel the Redcliff Lord!

Redcliff City. Within a hotel’s courtyard.

Linley and Bebe were casually sipping wine.

“Bebe, tell me, the Redcliff Lord should have heard of my public challenge by now, right? There’s no need for me to go in person to his door to challenge him again.” Linley said with a hint of uncertainty.

“Enough, Boss. Just wait.” Bebe said casually. “The Lords of Tartarus…what sort of status do they have? They are like the Lord Prefects or Purgatory Commanders of the Infernal Realm. They are exalted ﬁgures. In terms of status alone, they are beneath only the Sovereigns themselves. How could someone with that sort of status possibly ignore your open provocations?”

Linley laughed as he looked at Bebe. “The way you put it is really…”

Linley suddenly turned, looking towards the courtyard door.

Bebe looked as well. “Knock!” “Knock!” The sound of the door being knocked.

“I imagine his Lordship’s men have arrived.” Bebe hurriedly ran over and opened the door. A black-robed, silver-haired youth was standing outside, looking towards the courtyard. When his gaze fell upon Linley, he revealed a smile on his face. “Mr. Ley, I am Ganmoly, the steward for the Redcliff Lord.”

“Please come in.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Bebe laughed while winking towards Linley and sending mentally, “Boss, I was right, eh? His people have come.”

Ganmoly laughed while walking in, then said, “Mr. Ley, I have come to represent the Redcliff Lord in issuing you an invitation to make a trip to the his estate and discuss your challenge to him.”

“Discuss?” Linley raised an eyebrow. “Discuss the time and place?” “That’s part of it.” Ganmoly laughed.

“No need to discuss it. You can just proclaim a time and a place. That will sufﬁce.” Linley said with a calm smile.

“Mr. Ley, there are other matters as well. It’s best to make a trip.” Ganmoly said.

Linley and Bebe exchanged glances, and then Linley rose to his feet, smiling. “Since Steward Ganmoly and the Tartarus Lord invite us, then we two brothers will follow you, Steward Ganmoly, to make this trip.” Bebe revealed a smile on his face as well while sending to Linley, “Boss, the Redcliff Lord isn’t going to try and assassinate us secretly, is he?”

“He shouldn’t. If he wants to kill us, it is better to kill us publicly. To secretly assassinate us would not be keeping with his stature.” Linley sent back.

“Right.” Bebe sent in reply. “Boss, your words make sense. Forget it. If he does try anything funny, I’ll immediately use my ‘Godeater’ against him.” Under Ganmoly’s guidance, Linley and Bebe quickly arrived at the residence of the Redcliff Lord. The Redcliff Lord’s estate was surrounded by a large number of Highgod patrols. Linley swept them with his gaze. “Quite a few people. The outer perimeter has nearly ten thousand people, all Highgods!”

The population of Tartarus wasn’t very high.

The vast majority of the people here, however, were Highgods. The patrolling warriors at the Redcliff Lord’s estate naturally were all Highgods as well.

The Redcliff Lord’s estate was extremely large. Linley and Bebe followed for quite some time before they arrived at an empty martial training ﬁeld. Here, a muscular youth dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and long trousers was standing, ramrod straight. Although he was a ‘youth’ whose height and body shape seemed similar to Bebe’s…

However… This person seemed o emanate a vigorous, mighty aura.

“Your Lordship, they have come.” Ganmoly said respectfully.

Linley couldn’t help but narrow his eyes as he looked carefully at this short-sleeved, muscular youth. “So he really does look just like he did in the scryer recordings.”

“Whoosh.” The Redcliff Lord turned to look at them. His two vertically oriented, violet pupils caused Linley and Bebe to feel startled. Although they had seen scryer recordings, there was a limit to the clarity of the recordings. Linley was only able to see two ﬁgures ﬁght, and wasn’t able to see the pupils clearly.

“Your Lordship.” Linley said.

The Redcliff Lord, just by looking at Linley and Bebe, had the feeling that these two shouldn’t be weak. He said calmly, “Today, I have invited the two of you over because I can’t be bothered to go enter some battle for them to watch. At the same time, I have no interest in killing you, ‘Ley’. Thus, it’s best for you to openly proclaim that you are giving up your challenge. Go back and keep training.”

Linley and Bebe were stunned.

“Hey…why are you saying this?” Bebe couldn’t help but speak out.

“Redcliff Lord, no need to say anything further. I am eager for the chance to battle you.” Linley said.

The Redcliff Lord frowned as he looked at Linley.

“Hmph.” The Redcliff Lord thrust his hand out.

“WHAP!” It seemed as though a whip had viciously lashed the air, striking space itself. This simple swipe of the hand, where the ﬁst just punched into empty space… “BOOM!” “BOOM!” “BOOM!” “BOOM!”

One hole in space after another exploded forth, repeatedly giving birth to more, like a series of rings, one ring after another. Dozens of holes exploded forth into space, creating a giant tear in space which was more than ten meters long. Only after some time did they fade away.

“What a terrifying punch.” Linley’s pupils suddenly contracted. “Throbbing Pulse of the World. Essence of the Earth. Profound Mysteries of Strength. Vitality…from this simple punch alone, I can sense at least four types of profound mysteries. I can’t be certain whether there weren’t actually ﬁve profound mysteries. Too powerful. No wonder he was able to easily shatter Highgod artifacts with a simple punch.” Linley had to admit, the level of understanding the Redcliff Lord had with regards to the Laws exceeded Linley’s.

“If you are conﬁdent in being able to withstand this punch of mine, then choose to continue challenging me.” The Redcliff Lord said calmly. The nearby Ganmoly was chortling while watching this. He believed that Linley would deﬁnitely give up.

“Then Redcliff Lord, please tell me the time and the place for our battle.” Linley gave his response.

Chapter 8, The Storm Gathers

“Oh?” The Redcliff Lord suddenly turned, his sharp gaze shooting towards Linley.

“He…” Steward Ganmoly stared in surprise at Linley as well. Just now, the Redcliff Lord had revealed his extraordinary power. But this mysterious ‘Ley’ actually still had the courage to challenge him. Was this stupidity, or was this courage? Ganmoly took another, closer look at Linley.

“But of course, I can give up my challenge as well.” Linley suddenly changed the direction of the conversation.

“Oh?” The Redcliff Lord looked at Linley.

“Boss…” Bebe said, rather frantic.

Linley said calmly, “Redcliff Lord, the reasons I am challenging you are twofold. First of all, I wish to reach the peak of perfection in training, and becoming a Lord of Tartarus can be considered a way of verifying my current abilities. The second reason, however, is so that I will be qualiﬁed to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld! If you, Redcliff Lord, are willing to allow us two brothers to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld, while at the same time follow us two in accordance with our wishes in roaming about the battleﬁeld, then I can choose to forgo my challenge.”

Linley’s original desire was to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld.

If this Redcliff Lord was willing to bring himself and Bebe within and also obey his orders, wouldn’t that be much less troublesome?

“Planar Battleﬁeld?” The Redcliff Lord swept the two of them with his cold gaze. “The two of you would dare go to the Planar Battleﬁeld, for the sake of the Sovereign’s Might? This courage alone makes you worthy of my admiration.” Linley, hearing this, understood that the treasures one could acquire in exchange for accumulating military merits weren’t just limited to Sovereign artifacts. Sovereign’s Might was also possible. “They are looking for death.” The nearby Ganmoly said in a low voice.

“Whether we are or aren’t, isn’t something for you to worry about.” Bebe snorted.

“There is no way I can agree to your request.” The Redcliff Lord said calmly.

“Then I will continue my challenge.” Linley said very straightforwardly.

The Redcliff Lord’s violet pupils were locked onto Linley. In a low voice, he said, “Punk, you are looking for death!”

“Hey, you haven’t even fought yet. Nothing is certain.” Bebe raised his head proudly as he spoke, and Linley laughed calmly as well. “Redcliff Lord, you have the honored status of a Lord of Tartarus. I have trained for many years, and in my dreams, I too desire to one day become one of the Lords of Tartarus. I trust, your Lordship, you won’t be afraid of my challenge.” “Boss, as I see it, he is afraid.” Bebe immediately said.

The Redcliff Lord glanced at Bebe, but wasn’t angered in the slightest. He instructed calmly, “Ganmoly, send them away.”

“Yes, Lord.” Ganmoly bowed, and then said to Linley and Bebe, “The two of you, please follow me.”

Linley and Bebe were both stunned, while at the same time, Linley noticed that the Redcliff Lord had actually turned and left. Linley immediately felt frantic. “What does this Redcliff Lord intend to do? Is he trying to avoid doing battle?” Today, when the Redcliff Lord had invited Linley over, Linley had a strange feeling about it.

“Your Lordship, you can’t possibly be afraid, can you?!” Linley’s voice rang out, but the Redcliff Lord’s ﬁgure had already disappeared from Linley’s ﬁeld of vision. Just as Linley and Bebe were feeling puzzled and somewhat frantic, a cold, calm voice rang out. “One month from now, in the desolate wilderness east of the city. Since you seek death, I will give you what you desire.”

Hearing this voice, smiles immediately appeared on Linley and Bebe’s faces.

“Mr. Ley, you really…ugh.” Steward Ganmoly shook his head and sighed. “I admire your spirit and energy, but you have no hope in challenging his Lordship. Although your Gravitational Space is impressive, his Lordship is extremely skilled in the Laws of the Earth. You won’t be able to affect him. As I see it, he completely counters your strengths.”

Linley, hearing this, just laughed calmly.

Generally speaking, when two experts who trained in the same Laws fought, generally speaking, the person with a higher level of understanding would be able to counter the weaker one. However, there was one exception; if one side had an innate divine ability.

Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ was, in reality, the innate divine ability of Reisgem. The Redcliff Lord didn’t understand it at all.

“Let’s go, the two of you.”

Ganmoly led the way while continuing to speak. “It was so rare for his Lordship to be in such a good mood as he was in today. He saw that you were talented. The reason he summoned you today, in truth, was that he wanted to accept you as his subordinate! When the time came, you would become the left and right arms of the Redcliff Lord. In the Redcliff Region, you would be subordinate to only the Redcliff Lord himself. But you…alas, why must you do this!”

Linley and Bebe exchanged glances. They couldn’t help but laugh.

“Boss, his Lordship wanted to recruit you as a subordinate.” Bebe laughed. Linley now began to understand the purpose behind the invitation. But clearly, his reaction had caused the Redcliff Lord to be extremely angry. He hadn’t even said anything about inviting Linley to be his subordinate; he just immediately left.

“I truly am sorry for having disappointed his Lordship.” Linley said, his lips pursed in a smirk.

Ganmoly, seeing Linley’s reaction, just shook his head.

As he saw it, Linley was the type of warrior that loved to do battle and pursued perfection. Ever since Linley stated that he wanted to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld, Ganmoly had taken him to be that sort of madman. Without enough courage, without enough of a spirit for adventure, no one would dare enter the Planar Battleﬁeld.

On the way back, Linley and Bebe chatted casually on the streets. Having recently become famous within the Redcliff Region, Linley noticed that as soon as he appeared, many people would stare at him. Linley had to change his appearance and also make his robe an earthen yellow one, allowing him to be relatively unmolested.

“Fortunately, we got things done rather quickly this time.” Linley laughed.

“Right. Based on what our intelligence reports said, generally speaking, a challenge might be extended for a few years, or even a few centuries or longer.” Bebe nodded as he spoke. This was just a month; it wasn’t that long.

But suddenly…

“Everyone!” A voice suddenly rang out from behind. “Wonderful news, excellent news!!! Just now, word came from his Lordship’s estate. His Lordship and Lord Ley will, one month from now, engage in a formal duel in the eastern wilderness. This is the ﬁrst time his Lordship has publicly battled in ten million years!”

Linley and Bebe both looked over.

In the center of the street, there was a golden-robed man speaking loudly. Instantly, virtually everyone ﬂooded forth, surrounding him.

“What? In just one month? The eastern wilderness outside the city? Are you sure?”

“In one month, his Lordship will battle Lord Ley?”

Countless voices rang out.

In Tartarus, every single Lord of Tartarus was a supreme ﬁgure. Every single public challenge between a Lord of Tartarus and a challenger would attract a frenzied crowd to gather, and virtually 90% of the entire population in a particular region would hurry over to watch the battle.

“Hey, if you don’t believe it, you can go to his Lordship’s estate. This news is carved onto a stone tablet placed outside, next to the estate.” The golden-robed man said hurriedly.

“It’s true! I saw it as well.”

“Let’s all go to his Lordship’s residence to look.”

The vast majority of the people who had been strolling on the streets now surged towards the Redcliff Lord’s estate. As Deities who had virtually unlimited lifespans, the emergence of a victor of a hundred battles was already enough to excite them, but ten million years might pass without a single challenger to a Tartarus Lord’s position.

This was a major event for the entire region!

Within the restaurant.

The disguised Linley and Bebe were seated in a corner, drinking wine.

“Mad. They’ve all gone mad.” Bebe muttered.

Linley glanced sideways at the other people in the restaurant. The other people in the restaurant were, without exception, discussing the upcoming battle between Linley and the Redcliff Lord. Quite a few were so excited that their faces were red, and others were discussing the previous accomplishments in battle of the Redcliff Lord.

“Boss, this speaks to your charisma and magnetism.” Bebe snickered.

“They care about this battle, not because of me, but because of the Redcliff Lord.” Linley laughed. The two chatted in their corner with their Godrealms set up to block out the sound.

“The Redcliff Lord has a high, exalted status. His open, public battles naturally will arouse everyone’s excitement. For example, back in the Yulan continent, the battles between Saints would cause the ordinary people to become frenzied.” Linley said with a calm laugh while continuing to listen to these Deities discuss the upcoming battle with the Redcliff Lord. He couldn’t think back to that year when he dueled Olivier or Haydson. That, too, had attracted the attention of countless experts.

“Right. If Grandpa was to publicly announce a duel with someone, I would excitedly go watch as well.” Bebe chortled.

“There aren’t many who would dare challenge Beirut.” Linley said with a sigh.

If he himself could have Beirut’s level of power, he wouldn’t have needed to spend so much time to painstakingly select an opponent who he just happened to counter perfectly. For someone like Beirut…he could just casually choose any opponent and then easily achieve victory.

Time ﬂowed on like water, passing by quickly.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed. The streets and restaurants of the entire Redcliff City were almost completely empty. Unless they had something extremely important to attend to today, virtually every denizen of the Redcliff Region hastened to the eastern wilderness outside the city, awaiting the earth-shaking battle that was about to occur.

The eastern wilderness.

This area lived up to its name; it was completely barren and desolate. There wasn’t even any grass. There was nothing on the ground aside from earth and stones. Normally, very few people would come here. Today, however, an ocean of people was present.

“Look. That’s the challenger, Lord Ley.”

“Forget about the Redcliff Lord for now; if one day, I was as powerful as Lord Ley, I would die a happy man.” A man and a woman chatted with each other, and a the youth dressed in a blue robe said, his eyes ﬂashing with desire, “I, too, wish to one day be watched by countless Deities and duel one of the Lords of Tartarus! If I can achieve that, even if I die, I would have no regrets.”

“Stop dreaming.” The woman next to him said dismissively.

There was an ocean of people present in the eastern wilderness, standing on the ground. In midair, there was only one person; Linley! None of these spectating Deities had ﬂown into the air. They all watched from below on the ground, as a way of showing respect to Linley and the Redcliff Lord.

“There are quite a few people here.” Linley swept the ground below with his gaze. “There are people in an area with a circumference of nearly a hundred kilometers! There has to at least a hundred million people present, or perhaps even more.”

“Boss.” Bebe’s voice suddenly rang out in Linley’s mind. “Today, those who have come to watch are not just the people of the Redcliff Region. Even the people of the surrounding regions who were able to make it in time have come. Boss… with so many people watching, you have to win beautifully.”

Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

Suddenly, Linley’s gaze swept to the east. A blurred yellow shadow ﬂew over at high speed, so fast that even Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart clench.

“So fast! This ﬂying speed is at least several times greater than mine…and this isn’t his absolute limit.”

The previously chattering spectators seemed to, in harmony, lower their voices. In just three seconds, the hundred-million plus Deities in the desolate wilderness turned completely silent. The only sound that could be heard was the constant howling of the wind. Everyone raised their heads to look towards the only two people in midair…

Linley and the Redcliff Lord!

“Swoosh!” The blurred yellow form suddenly came to a halt, revealing the Redcliff Lord’s body.

His ﬁgure was physically small, but inspired dread in all who beheld him. He stood there in midair, dressed in a form-ﬁtting short-sleeved shirt and long trousers. His strange violet pupils stared coldly at Linley. With a snicker, he said, “You came quite

early. Even if you want to die, you don’t need to be in such a rush.”

“It’s too early to say who will be the one to die.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Just like that, with a hundred million Deities watching them, Linley and the Redcliff Lord casually chatted with each other.

“Hmph.”

The Redcliff Lord snorted coldly, his voice suddenly turning ﬁerce and ringing out, “No need to waste any time. The battle starts now. I’ll give you one chance. Make your move!” The Redcliff Lord clearly intentionally spoke these words very loudly. His voice travelled to a distance of many kilometers, and all of the Deities below within the area heard his words very clearly, especially given how acute their hearing was.

“The battle is beginning!” All of the Deities instantly held their breaths, staring at these two ﬁgures. Everyone was wondering…

Would this earth-shaking battle be like the other ones, with the challenger dying and the Redcliff Lord winning? Or… would a new Redcliff Lord appear!

Chapter 9, A Battle Between Supreme Experts of the Earth

“As you wish, then.” Linley’s body suddenly emanated an earthen yellow aura, which instantly spread out to form a spherical space that was a thousand meters long, immediately enveloping the Redcliff Lord within. This time, Linley still didn’t use his Blackstone Space at full force; he only increased the Blackstone Space to half power!

But although it was only half power, it was still enough to startle the Redcliff Lord.

The Redcliff Lord’s body sunk downwards slightly, but then he maintained his position in midair. He gave Linley a surprised glance. “Gravitational Space. What a strange Gravitational Space!” But the Redcliff Lord still stood there in midair, not moving. He said calmly, “Your Gravitational Space is excellent. Whatever techniques you have available, show them all off! If you wait for me to attack, you won’t have the chance to.”

Conﬁdence!

The Redcliff Lord was qualiﬁed to be arrogant. He didn’t fear soul attacks at all, and as for material attacks? As an expert of the Laws of the Earth, the Redcliff Lord was most conﬁdent in material attacks. His soul and material defenses were both powerful. This was the reason why the Redcliff Lord was qualiﬁed to be conﬁdent.

Linley smirked, saying to himself, “Just keep being smug. In a bit, you will be dead before you even have the chance to feel regret.”

“Rumble…”

The ‘black stone’ within Linley’s sea of consciousness instantly spread outwards, quickly surrounding the Redcliff Ruler.

Spiritual Chaos! “Hrm?” A hint of a smile appeared at the corners of the lips of the Redcliff Lord. He mused to himself, “So indeed, just as Ganmoly discovered, this powerful Gravitational Space is paired with a spiritual attack. It is indeed rather formidable. But against me…” Linley had ﬁrst used his Gravitational Space and then his spiritual attack, which had indeed caused the Redcliff Lord to feel slightly numbed.

But right at this moment…

“Die.” A killing intent surged from Linley’s mind, and he immediately moved.

“BOOM!”

It was as though space had exploded. Linley’s entire body shot towards the Redcliff Lord as fast as a bolt of lightning, and while shooting towards the Redcliff Lord’s, the robes covering Linley’s body exploded apart as azure-golden draconic scales instantly covered his entire body. Those savage spikes and that whip-like draconic tail all sprouted out as well. Instant Dragonform!

“What!” The Redcliff Lord was still in a state of shock, and his body suddenly sank downwards.

Blackstone Space – Supergravity!

The power of the gravitational pull of the Blackstone Space increased from half power to full power. This sudden increase in power did indeed throw the Redcliff Lord off-balance, especially combined with Linley’s Dragonform, which astonished him as well. No matter how foolish he might be, he now understood…that this Mr. ‘Ley’ in front of him had been hiding his true power this entire time! How laughable it was that he had wanted to recruit ‘Ley’ as a subordinate!

“He’s looking for death.” The Redcliff Lord howled angrily in his heart.

The Redcliff Lord’s entire body ﬂickered. Like a crab, his shoulders suddenly expanded outwards, and the strange thing was, the space around him, with a ‘boom’, began to tremble as well. The gravitational power generated by Linley’s Blackstone Space, in the area next to the Redcliff Lord, actually began to distort and weaken. The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley with a cold face. Seeing Linley charge towards him, he just swung out with right ﬁst, whip-fast…

The counteracting of the gravitational pull to the counter- attack happened instantaneously. The Redcliff Lord’s reaction time was extremely fast!

“Crackle!”

“Eh?” Right after the Redcliff Lord swung out with his ﬁst, his face suddenly changed.

“Swish!” A giant tear in space suddenly appeared, as though space itself was only made of power. An invisible, shadowless sword instantly arrived at the Redcliff Lord’s forehead, between his eyebrows. The Redcliff Lord, frantic, opened his mouth and let out a furious howl as though he were a trapped beast. A clear earthen yellow aura spat out from his mouth, striking directly against the invisible sword.

“Eh?” Linley was stunned. “This Redcliff Lord is indeed even more powerful than I was aware of.”

Linley had suddenly Dragonformed, suddenly increased his Blackstone Space to full power, and then in the ﬁnal moment, suddenly revealed and attacked with his godspark sword, ‘Mirage’. Especially given that Mirage left behind no traces and was completely invisible…this sort of sudden, powerful attack would be undiscoverable unless someone was paying very close attention. But clearly, the Redcliff Lord was simply too strong.

Only when Mirage drew close to the Redcliff Lord did Linley realize that a strange, unique ‘Gravitational Space’ had formed around the Redcliff Lord’s body.

“This Gravitational Space is actually centered around his forehead.” Linley was completely unable to understand this technique. The vibrations which rippled out from the Redcliff Lord formed into a unique Gravitational Space that was like two loops of power with different strengths. This caused Linley’s sword to be affected. Despite that, however…

Linley had hidden his power too deeply; the explosive triple combination of his Dragonform, the Blackstone Space, and Mirage caused the Redcliff Lord to not have enough time to fully react.

“Slash!”

When Mirage was struck, it changed directions slightly. Suddenly, the Redcliff Lord’s right arm slashed over, seeming to attract Linley’s sword towards it like a magnet. Linley just laughed coldly while exploding forth with his full power, and with a ‘slash’ sound, Mirage instantly pierced through the Redcliff Lord’s right side of the chest, penetrating straight through to the Redcliff Lord’s lungs.

“BANG!”

The Redcliff Lord’s furious punched landed towards Linley. “Rumble…” Space instantly exploded forth and blasted towards Linley.

“Swoosh!” In Dragonform, Linley moved as fast as lightning, instantly scurrying into the distance. As for the Redcliff Lord, his eyes seemed to spit violet ﬁre as he stared angrily at Linley. When he breathed, he was forced to cough, as his lungs had been slashed through. But of course…he quickly recovered.

“You…hid your powers very deeply!” The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley.

“I’m just average. I trust, your Lordship, that you too have a supreme attack that you’ve hidden away.” Linley said calmly.

“Tell me your true name! Which Elder of the Azure Dragon clan are you? I’ve never heard of the Azure Dragon clan having an expert named ‘Ley’.” The Redcliff Lord said coldly. By now, after having seen Linley’s Dragonformed appearance, it would be strange indeed if he wasn’t be able to guess that Linley was a member of the Azure Dragon clan. Linley’s dark golden eyes stared into the Redcliff Lord’s violet ones.

“Let me re-introduce myself. I, an Elder of the Azure Dragon clan…am Linley!!!” Linley said in a cold voice.

Utter silence!

The hundred million Highgods watching this in the eastern wilderness were all stunned. Although in their heart, they knew that this sort of duel could result in the birth of a new Lord of Tartarus, they also knew that the possibility was very small. Almost everyone here believed…that this battle was just a performance for the Redcliff Lord!

Perhaps this Mr. Ley’s performance might bring some unexpected surprises for everyone, but virtually all the spectators had come for the sake of watching the Redcliff Lord. But as soon as the battle had begun, they had become stupeﬁed. In midair, there was a man whose entire body was covered in draconic scales, with his knees, elbows, and spine all covered with sharp, savage spikes, and with a draconic tail waving behind him. The former ‘Mr. Ley’ now looked completely different, and their Redcliff Lord, after the ﬁrst clash in the battle, now had a huge hole in his chest as well as blood ﬂowing out.

In the very ﬁrst exchange…

The Redcliff Lord had been injured!

“Lin…Linley?” Everyone stared, wide-eyed.

“Linley, Elder of the Four Divine Beasts clan! I’ve heard of him. He once killed ﬁve Seven Star Fiends by himself.”

“It’s him. I saw his scryer recording before.” Instantly, the entire eastern wilderness exploded with noise. Everyone became excited and agitated. They had all believed that this one be a one-sided show, but now, it seemed…this person was an amazing ﬁgure of legend, Elder Linley of the Azure Dragon clan of the Four Divine Beasts clan, and he was the one who would be engaging in this thrilling duel with their Redcliff Lord!

The cacophony suddenly faded away, as everyone once more focused their attention on the scene in midair.

Because…the Redcliff Lord had already revealed his weapon.

A completely pitch-black knife. The Redcliff Lord hefted the knife, staring coldly at Linley. “So it is Linley! I was wondering how such an expert would suddenly emerge in our Redcliff region. I must admit that based on our exchange just now, you are qualiﬁed to be my opponent. To show respect to you, I will attack with all my might.”

Linley just watched all of this coldly. “It seems as though beating this Redcliff Lord won’t be so easy.” Linley’s thoughts spun through his mind. He had a tremendous advantage earlier; he had suddenly revealed his Dragonform, his true Blackstone Space, and Mirage; only then had he been able to wound his opponent. From this, one could tell how powerful this enemy was.

“What a bizarre Gravitational Space.”

The Redcliff Lord shook himself, as though seeming rather uncomfortable and needing to get accustomed to this Gravitational Space. But that simple movement suddenly…

“Hrm?” Linley was startled.

He could clearly sense how the strange Gravitational Space emanating from the Redcliff Lord’s forehead transformed as well. Although in terms of power, it was vastly inferior to Linley’s Blackstone Space, it was still able to ablate the inﬂuence of the Blackstone Space. It was as though the Redcliff Lord had been trapped in quicksand, but a protective layer of energy had suddenly surrounded him, allowing his movements to quicken.

“Swoosh!” The Redcliff Lord suddenly ﬂashed forward in an arc, pouncing towards Linley.

This strange arcing movement lanced at an incredibly high speed.

“He is indeed fast, but not as fast as me!” Linley’s speed reached a limit as well. Clearly, Linley was almost twice as fast as the Redcliff Lord. The Blackstone Space was the supreme technique of Reisgem, after all. Linley had spent ﬁve hundred years entrapped before gaining insight into it, and after having acquired the Black Stone, the power of his technique was already comparable to Reisgem’s.

Although the Redcliff Lord adapted much more quickly than others to it, his speed was still dramatically lessened.

“Swish!” It moved as fast as a bolt of lightning. A tear in space suddenly appeared as the completely invisible ‘Mirage’ pierced directly towards the Redcliff Lord. The only thing the Redcliff Lord was able to sense was a terrifying power oncoming, a power that could easily rip apart the spatial walls of the

Netherworld. Faced with this attack, the Redcliff Lord’s body suddenly paused.

“WHAP!”

He threw out his arm, and his ﬁst suddenly shot forward like a rock from a catapult. That faint, earthen yellow light was emanating from his ﬁst, while also ﬂowing with a black light.

“BANG!”

The ﬁst collided directly against the tip of the godspark sword, Mirage.

And just as the ﬁst shot out, the Redcliff Lord actually borrowed the powerful surge of force, swiveling slightly as he stabbed with the black knife in his left hand towards Linley’s head. “Swish!” Where the black knife passed, space itself blew apart. This attack was so terrifying as to make a person’s face change color from fear.

But Linley seemed to instinctively strike back with his own left ﬁst!

The clenched draconic claws pressed down like an entire mountain, as the terrifying divine earth power completely exploded forth – Firmament Splitter!

“BANG!”

The black dagger and the ﬁst collided, and space instantly blew apart.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Linley and his opponent were both knocked backwards. “What a powerful ﬁst.” Linley stared coldly at his opponent. The Redcliff Lord had actually dared to use his ﬁst to ﬁght against Linley’s godspark weapon.

“What a sharp sword.” The Redcliff Lord glanced at his right ﬁst. The sword had pierced through the bones of his right ﬁst. His ﬁst was comparable to a Highgod artifact, but it had actually been wounded. Actually, he couldn’t be blamed; it was a godspark weapon which he faced, after all. The Redcliff Lord then glanced at Linley’s ﬁst. “Your ﬁst is pretty tough as well.”

Some of the draconic scales covering Linley’s ﬁst had been shattered as well.

That short exchange of blows had caused both Linley and the Redcliff Lord to understand something; they couldn’t let the enemy hit them in their vital points. Linley had to rely on his ﬁst executing an attack with his understanding of the Profound Mysteries in order to block that dagger. If the enemy managed to strike him in the head, the draconic scales would deﬁnitely not be able to block them.

And the opposite was true as well.

If Linley’s sword was to stab into the enemy’s forehead, he would deﬁnitely pierce through and kill the enemy.

The countless people watching this duel in the eastern wilderness were completely breathless. Above them, two supreme experts were battling, and they were absolutely too powerful.

“That Elder Linley has an invisible weapon. His Lordship is incredibly powerful; he dared to use his ﬁst to accept that blow.”

“Lord Linley is powerful as well. He too dared to use his ﬁst to block his Lordship’s knife.”

The hundred million spectators were completely cowed by the might and strength of these two experts. All of them watched unblinkingly, wanting to see what would happen.

“Ahhhh, look, what’s going on?” “What’s going on? How is that possible?”

Many people’s faces suddenly changed dramatically. “His Lordship, his Lordship can transform as well?”

Linley’s face changed dramatically as well. He had never watched the Redcliff Lord transform in any of the scryer recordings he had seen.

“In the past, when I challenged the previous Redcliff Lord, he wasn’t able to force me to transform. Congratulations…you are the very ﬁrst person I have encountered since becoming the Redcliff Lord capable of making me use my full power.” The Redcliff Lord’s violet eyes stared at Linley. His entire body was undergoing a sudden change. His shoulders began to bulge, and his entire body began to emanate a black light…”

Chapter 10, The Final, Supreme Technique!

“Crackle…”

A black aura surrounded and swirled around the body of the Redcliff Lord. His shoulders began to bulge more and more extravagantly, until with a ‘crunch’ sound, two black, knife- like shoulder blades spread out like a pair of black wings that folded against each other. It was like a black cape was hanging from the Redcliff Lord’s back.

From the forehead of the Redcliff Lord emerged a pair of sharp black horns as well.

The Redcliff Lord’s entire body was now pitch black, and he stared at Linley with those violet pupils.

“Those vertical violet pupils looked different from an ordinary person’s. I should’ve guessed long ago.” Linley, seeing the Redcliff Lord before him, mused to himself. This Redcliff Lord was actually able to transform. Naturally, his power had increased as well. Linley felt some pressure now as well. Would he be able to win this battle?

Linley wasn’t completely certain.

All he could do was to sigh to himself that not a single person capable of becoming a Lord of Tartarus could be underestimated.

“Linley!” The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley with his violet eyes, smirking. “No matter what the results are, I will forever remember you!” As soon as the words fell, the Redcliff Lord’s knife-like blade wings suddenly trembled, and the surrounding area was instantly formed into a bizarre, double-ringed gravitational ﬁeld.

“Swoosh!”

Moving like a ﬂying bird, the Redcliff Lord gracefully glided at high speed forward. “His speed did indeed increase slightly. However, it’s far from being enough.” Linley didn’t back down in the slightest. He, too, transformed into an arcing blur, his translucent Mirage sword mercilessly piercing towards the Redcliff Lord’s skull. This stab caused a hole to be torn through space.

The Redcliff Lord thrust out his arm.

“Clang!”

That black knife, ﬂowing with an earthen yellow knife, collided with Linley’s ‘Mirage’.

“BOOM!”

The two were both knocked backwards by the collision once again but then the two instantly charged towards each other at high speed yet again. In terms of speed, Linley clearly held the advantage. The Redcliff Lord wouldn’t possibly be able to dodge every time. However, the strange gravitational ﬁeld surrounding the Redcliff Lord caused it so that each time Linley’s sword drew near, it would be affected just slightly.

But that slight affect was enough to change the outcome.

“Swish!” An incredibly fast sword blow.

The Redcliff Lord was, after all, slightly slower. However, once the Mirage fell into the strange dual looped gravitational ﬁeld, it couldn’t help but change direction slightly. The Redcliff Lord’s wings once more trembled, as though he was going to block once again.

“Hmph!” Linley instantly caused the divine power within Mirage to explode forth.

“Boom!”

Mirage stabbed directly into the Redcliff Lord’s left shoulder, sending fresh blood ﬂying everywhere. After having landed this blow, Linley didn’t hesitate; he immediately retreated. And as he did, Linley once more relied on his speed to launch an attack. Although…in terms of material attacks, it could be said that by relying on his godspark weapon, Linley was able to ﬁght to a standstill, Linley wasn’t able to take the counter- blows head on.

He had to rely on Mirage and his speed to repeatedly leave wounds behind on his enemy’s body.

As for the Redcliff Lord, even though he had transformed, he was still much slower. He could just barely protect his vitals and ensure that his head wasn’t struck, but he was unable to protect the other places on his body.

There, in midair, within an enormous gravitational sphere formed of earthen yellow light, their two ﬁgures clashed repeatedly, as fast as lightning. Linley’s invisible Mirage sword occasionally left behind wounds on the Redcliff Lord’s body. The Redcliff Lord appeared to be in rather bad shape, but he didn’t look the slightest bit discouraged, continuing to go all out against Linley.

As soon as Linley backed off, he might immediately receive a strong counterattack.

“This looks troublesome. It seems victory and defeat won’t be determined within in a short time frame.” Bebe said with a frown.

“It is a bit troublesome. Although the Redcliff Lord’s speed increased after transforming, Elder Linley clearly doesn’t dare to ﬁght against him head on, and so not a single one of his attacks has landed on Elder Linley. But Elder Linley is able to wound him. Elder Linley clearly has the advantage.” A burly, green-robed man by Bebe’s said spoke out. The entire eastern wilderness held more than a hundred million people. Because the battle above was simply too absorbing, discussions once more rang out from below. Linley currently had the slight advantage, as the Redcliff Lord’s body continued to shed blood every so often.

However, small wounds like these didn’t impact his strength much.

Who would win, and who would lose? For now, it was hard to say.

“If things continue like this, how long will it take?” Quite a few people were puzzled.

What these spectators like to see were those true, all out, frontal assaults. Those sorts of battles might only last an instant, but generally speaking, life and death would be determined within a few blows. Those battles would cause the spectators to feel nervous and to feel their blood pumping.

But now…

Linley and the Redcliff Lord clearly weren’t ﬁghting in such a way.

“Hey, that’s weird. It seems as though the Redcliff Lord is getting a bit faster.” Someone suddenly said. “Right. He did speed up. It seems as though it no longer is so easy for Elder Linley to wound the Redcliff Lord.” Quite a few spectators slowly discovered this.

Bebe noticed this as well. He instantly grew nervous.

The spectators below were leisurely watching Linley and the Redcliff Lord battle, but they themselves didn’t dare to slacken off in the slightest. If they did, they might end up being killed in that instant.

“That sword is too bizarre.” The Redcliff Lord’s mind was constantly in a state of tension. The godspark sword, ‘Mirage’, would constantly stab towards him. If it wasn’t for the fact that he could rely on using gravity to change its direction and block it, Mirage would’ve pierced through his head long ago. All he could do was hold on…”

“Keep waiting, just keep waiting…in a bit, it’ll be time for you to be in trouble.” The Redcliff Lord mused to himself.

Linley had a bad feeling as well.

“His speed is continuously rising. Or, to be precise…the gravitational ﬁeld around his body is transforming.” Linley discovered that the Redcliff Lord’s wings were ﬁlled with divine power, and were trembling at high speed, creating two surges of unique vibrations. These two unique vibrational surges were inﬂuencing each other.

This was causing the gravitational ﬁeld to transform as well.

As time went on, the constant transformations caused by the two vibrations caused the ability of the gravitational ﬁeld to resist Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ more and more effectively.

A Gravitational Space was actually created by relying on divine power transformed into gravitational power. If an opponent was also skilled in it, the opponent would be able to ablate its effects. Although the Redcliff Lord didn’t understand this ‘Blackstone Space’, while within it, he could sense and slowly adjust his own gravitational ﬁeld, continuously perfecting it in its ability to deal with Linley’s Blackstone Space. This made it so that as time went on, his speed became faster and faster!

“Linley, time for you to have a taste of what it feels like to be trampled!” The Redcliff Lord let out a furious howl. He transformed into a ray of black light, shooting towards Linley at high speed. Although his speed was currently still slower than Linley’s, the gap was low enough now that he could rely on his attack techniques to make up for it. The difference wasn’t as great as it had been previously.

Linley let out a calm laugh. “It is indeed time for things to come to an end.”

Linley charged forward to welcome him.

“Whooooosh.” The black knife struck directly at Linley’s head. Linley didn’t hesitate at all; Mirage pierced forward at high speed as well.

“Clang!” In the instant when the black knife and Mirage clashed.

“Swoosh!” The Redcliff Lord’s wings trembled, and he suddenly increased in speed, and his right ﬁst swung out towards Linley in a straight line. However, at the same instant of his attack, there was a bizarre, unique ripple.

‘Rumble’…

A spatial whirlpool suddenly seemed to form, with that ﬁst being at the center of the whirlpool.

In an instant…

The space around the ﬁst seemed to have been trapped and activated, and even the direction of gravity was twisted. Linley felt his own body be impacted as well.

“Eh? This punch!” Linley’s face changed dramatically.

The effect of this punch made Linley think of the ‘Abyssal Inn’. There, he had seen the Sovereign of Death use the Laws of Water to attack and achieve this effect. At that time, the Sovereign of Death had used a ﬁshing line to distort space, capturing and binding that Seven Star Fiend level expert. And now, this punch of the Redcliff Lord had the same effect.

Linley wasn’t able to dodge in time at all!

“Whoosh!” Linley gritted his teeth, then swept out with his left arm, his draconic claw ﬁlling with divine earth power and smashing down like a mountain. Firmament Splitter!

“BANG!”

Linley just felt a bone-piercing pain in his left hand before he was knocked ﬂying backwards.

“What a powerful punch.” Linley lowered his head to look at his ﬁst. The draconic scales atop his ﬁst were almost completely shattered. Fresh blood was leaking out, and the bones of his hand were faintly visible. Even when using ‘Firmament Splitter’, he had still fallen into such a state.

“I can’t use my ﬁst to take his head on.” Linley immediately came to this conclusion. “I have to use my godspark weapon against his ﬁst.”

“Haha…”

Wild laughter rang out. The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley with his violet eyes. His wings suddenly trembled, and he once more swooped forward. Linley’s ‘Mirage’ struck out as well, so fast as to cause even the Redcliff Lord’s laughter to come to a sudden halt. He immediately wanted to use his black knife to block it.

But Linley suddenly withdrew his sword.

“Rumble…” The Redcliff Lord laughed coldly. The black ﬁst covered by that ﬂowing earthen yellow light once more struck out, causing that spatial whirlpool to form once more, distorting the nearby space and gravity. Linley could sense the power of that ﬁst.

“Swish!”

Mirage came stabbing straight out.

“Hmph.” The Redcliff Lord was very conﬁdent. He didn’t dodge at all, allowing his right ﬁst to smash straight against Mirage. But as Mirage drew close to the ﬁst, it actually became uncontrollably affected by the spatial whirlpool and was attracted to it. The Redcliff Lord’s ﬁst struck right against the ﬂat of Mirage.

And then, it glided forwards, straight towards Linley’s head.

“BANG!” Suddenly…

The downwards gravitational direction of the Blackstone Space changed into…a repulsive force!

The originally downwards gravitational pull suddenly disappeared, causing the Redcliff Lord to uncontrollably surge upwards. Right at this moment, the repulsive force swept outwards, causing the Redcliff Lord’s body to uncontrollably be pushed backwards.

“Swoosh!” Linley seized the opportunity to charge forward, sending Mirage out in a straight stab.

The sudden change of the gravitational direction caused the ‘upwards’ gravitational ﬁeld the Redcliff Lord had previously created to be ineffective, and his speed once more slowed greatly. This, followed by the sudden attack by Linley’s sword…by the time the Redcliff Lord reacted, the sword had already appeared in front of his eyes. “Not good!” The Redcliff Lord’s face changed dramatically, and he hurriedly retreated.

When impacted by the repulsive force, his retreating speed was still very fast.

Linley smirked. “GET OVER HERE!”

The gravitational pull once more changed! The repulsive force transformed into an attractive force, centered towards Linley!

The Redcliff Lord’s body couldn’t help but sway.

“Slash!” As he frantically dodged, Linley’s sword only managed to pierce through the Redcliff Lord’s chest.

“Impossible, impossible!!!” The Redcliff Lord frantically tried to resist the gravitational pull. He hurriedly retreated, staring towards Linley in disbelief. “Your Gravitational Space….how can it casually change directions? How can it…can it be?!” The Redcliff Lord suddenly thought of a person.

“Reisgem!” The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley in disbelief.

This sort of Gravitational Space which allowed for casual control of the direction of the gravity was the supreme technique of Reisgem. Even a supreme expert like the Redcliff Lord, when faced with this sort of constantly changing directional pull, would ﬁnd it hard to control his movements perfectly.

Given this sort of situation, all he could do was struggle to preserve his own life.

“Swoosh!” Linley once more shot forward at high speed.

The Redcliff Lord immediately ﬂew backwards, but the gravitational pull acting on his body once more changed directions, into an ‘upwards’ gravitational pull. Caught off- guard, the Redcliff Lord’s body couldn’t help but sway upwards. “Bastard, bastard…this is the innate supreme technique of Reisgem. How could someone else learn it? How?!” The Redcliff Lord still couldn’t believe it.

“Rumble…”

A strange, powerful ripple suddenly spread out.

“What?” The Redcliff Lord’s face suddenly changed.

Linley was currently staring at him, while an enormous Azure Dragon Phantom that was ten thousand meters long lay coiled behind Linley. The Azure Dragon Phantom was hovering behind Linley, staring emotionlessly at the Redcliff Lord. Suddenly, a unique sound began to echo in the Redcliff Lord’s mind…

Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar!

Linley’s ﬁnal, supreme technique had ﬁnally been unleashed!

Chapter 11, Victory and Defeat

The Dragon Roar contained a spiritual attack component, but it wasn’t able to affect the Redcliff Lord at all.

However…

The most monstrous property of the innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, was the impact it had on time. There was no type of Law or Edict that was able to change the rate of time. Only this sort of unearthly innate divine ability was capable of it. Innate divine abilities were things which surpassed the limits of the Laws! As for the Azure Dragon clan, their innate divine ability was able to change the speed of time. In the region where the Redcliff Lord’s soul was located, the speed of time began to change!

“Swish!”

Linley, while executing his innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, also shot forward like a blur of light, the godspark sword Mirage mercilessly piercing straight towards the forehead of the Redcliff Lord. His most powerful blow… Firmament Splitter!

“BANG!” A hole appeared in the Redcliff Lord’s forehead, and Mirage passed straight through it, piercing against his soul!

Silence! Utter stillness!

The enormous Azure Dragon Phantom in the sky had yet to vanish. The hundred million-plus spectators on the ground, upon seeing the enormous Azure Dragon Phantom appear, felt shock and awe in their hearts. But when Linley’s ‘Mirage’ sword pierced straight through the Redcliff Lord’s forehead, everyone below was truly stunned.

“The Redcliff Lord…died?”

Although they couldn’t see Mirage, even the weakest of the spectators below was at the Demigod level. After having watched for so long, they were able to guess that Linley was wielding an invisible sword in his hand. Judging from Linley’s posture, they were able to guess that the invisible sword had stabbed into the Redcliff Lord’s forehead.

Caught in a patch of slow time, the Redcliff Lord only felt that before he even had a chance to react, Linley’s ‘Mirage’ had come stabbing straight into his forehead. The Redcliff Lord felt as though Linley’s attack speed had suddenly increased tenfold, perhaps even twentyfold. This sort of speed was something he couldn’t react to at all.

Mirage pierced into his sea of consciousness.

An invisible black barrier was currently protecting the Redcliff Lord’s soul. This was the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact which the Redcliff Lord possessed. By relying on this soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, the Redcliff Lord was able to stably sit on his throne as a Lord of Tartarus.

However, a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact only protected against soul attacks.

It was much like how… A soul attack could ignore the body and ignore all physical barriers, passing through to attack the soul, or be blocked by a soul-protecting artifact.

It was the same principle.

Material attacks would ignore soul-protecting artifacts. If someone used a soul attack to try and block a material attack, that would be an utter joke.

A soul-protecting Sovereign artifact was, by its very nature, formed to be used against soul attacks. Against an incoming material attack, it might as well not be there. Mirage pierced directly through the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact’s protection, and the artifact itself wasn’t damaged in the slightest.

They didn’t even touch. Although time had slowed, the Redcliff Lord still knew, at the moment that Linley’s sword came stabbing in, that the moment of his death had come. But his thinking speed was simply too slow; there was no way he could react in time. The only thing he could do was…

“Bang!”

Deep within his sea of consciousness, within the hands of a divine clone…a drop of Death-type Sovereign’s Might exploded forth! A terrifying surge of Sovereign power spread out, according to the Laws of the Earth, forming into countless blades and swarming towards Linley’s ‘Mirage’, smashing against it! By now, the Redcliff Lord had almost gone insane.

All he knew was…

He had to block it!

Thus, he now used his most powerful attack while relying on Sovereign’s Might to block Mirage.

“BOOOM!”

As he stabbed down, Linley sensed a terrifyingly powerful force surge out from the Redcliff Lord’s sea of consciousness, and then surges of power slam against Mirage. In addition, the power of every single surge was tremendous. Linley couldn’t help but be shaken, and he ﬂew backwards while staring at the Redcliff Lord in surprise.

“What’s going on?” Linley didn’t understand.

“Rumble…” Powerful Death-type light emanated from the Redcliff Lord, and the wounds on his body quickly repaired.

The Redcliff Lord’s eyes suddenly lit up as he stared angrily at Linley. “Linley!” With the might of Sovereign power ﬁlling his body, if he were to attack using the profound mysteries, he would clearly now be much stronger. The impact of Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ would be greatly lessened as well. “Bastard.” After having nearly been killed, the enraged Redcliff Lord prepared to charge forward.

“Do we have to continue?”

Linley’s voice rang out.

“Eh?” The Redcliff Lord’s body trembled, and he came to a halt.

Although his body was brimming with black light, and although his power had indeed risen tremendously after using that Sovereign’s Might, to a level that was indeed enough to kill the current Linley….he wouldn’t be able to kill what Linley was about to become. Because currently, in Linley’s hand, there was ﬂoating a drop of earthen yellow liquid…earth-type Sovereign’s Might!

“Do we have to continue?” Linley’s voice still echoed in the air.

The Redcliff Lord stared at the drop of Sovereign’s Might hovering in Linley’s palm, his heart ﬁlled with resentment.

But if this continued, the result was obvious!

When an expert of the Laws of the Earth used a drop of earth-type Sovereign’s Might, the power unleashed would be at a peak.

Without using his Sovereign’s Might, Linley, by relying on his Blackstone Space and his innate divine ability, these two supreme techniques, was already at a slight advantage.

If he were to use his Sovereign’s Might, even though the Redcliff Lord had used a drop of Death-type Sovereign’s Might, against Linley’s earth-type Sovereign’s Might, the result was obviously…that Linley’s advantage would rise dramatically. By then…the Redcliff Lord would deﬁnitely perish!

“AAAAAARGH!” The Redcliff Lord suddenly bellowed, face towards the skies. A wild blast of Death-type Sovereign’s Might blasted out in every direction, and the surges of wild, powerful might caused multiple tears in space to appear around him. The aura was so powerful as to cause the countless spectators below to feel shocked. None of them knew what the results of the battle

were yet.

“I admit defeat!” A hoarse, growling voice rang out.

Linley laughed.

This was all as he had expected. If they were to continue to ﬁght, Linley was completely certain that by relying on his earth-type Sovereign’s Might, he would be able to win and kill this opponent. But if he did that…although his opponent would be dead, he would have used up his only drop of earth- type Sovereign’s Might. It absolutely wasn’t worth it. And, perhaps the enemy might have a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, true, but even if he acquired it, in the future, it’s Sovereign would come reclaim it.

Thus, Linley didn’t wish to continue this battle. He chose to preserve his one and only drop of Sovereign’s Might.

This drop of earth-type Sovereign’s Might had been awarded to him after he had used up the previous drop in order to save Elder Garvey during the ﬁnal battle between the Four Divine Beasts clan and the eight great clans. The clan had naturally replenished Linley with another drop, if for no other reason than to show gratitude for Beirut having helped the Four Divine Beasts clan.

“Linley.” The Redcliff Lord stared at Linley. “To be honest, I’m very reluctant to admit defeat in this battle! In terms of profound mysteries, you are far inferior to me. As I see it, you have at most fused three or four different profound mysteries.” The Redcliff Lord, based on his astuteness, naturally was able to tell that how many profound mysteries each of Linley’s attacks held.

“I admit this.” Linley nodded.

“However, you have Reisgem’s innate divine ability, as well as your Azure Dragon clan’s innate divine ability. With those two matched up with your decent understanding of the Laws…” The Redcliff Lord let out a self-mocking chuckle.

Linley was a single individual, but he actually possessed two powerful, supreme innate abilities.

“Reisgem’s supreme innate ability. In all the countless planes, he’s the only person I know capable of this.” The Redcliff Lord sighed. “This sort of supreme innate ability that allows him to constantly change the direction of a gravitational pull does indeed make others feel envious. This alone makes it so that virtually no one can surpass him in close-quarters combat.”

Linley nodded slightly.

“I lost. Having lost to two such supreme innate abilities, I have nothing to say.” The Redcliff Lord sighed.

Linley laughed calmly.

He could tell how reluctant to admit it the Redcliff Lord was. But so what if he was reluctant? Innate divine abilities were a part of a person’s power. For example, Bebe…he had fused no profound mysteries at all, but once he unleashed his innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, how many could resist him?

There was nothing for it. This was an innate ability!

As for Linley, he had two powerful innate abilities. Because he had fused a low amount of profound mysteries, this made it so that…Linley’s potential was tremendous! But as for the Redcliff Lord, he had already tapped out all his potential.

“Redcliff Lord, let’s publicly announce the results.” Linley laughed calmly.

Just now, the conversation between the two of them after the battle came to an end had intentionally been separated from the spectators through Godrealm, so that no one below could hear them.

“Fine.” The Redcliff Lord nodded. The Redcliff Lord looked down at the countless spectators, then said in an emotionless voice, “This duel is concluded. From today onwards, Linley is the next Lord of this region.” After speaking…he transformed into a black blur, streaking towards the west. Clearly, he was going to leave the Redcliff region.

Silence!

The countless spectators below instantly fell silent…and then erupted into a cacophony of cheers and chatter. Actually, when they saw Linley’s sword stab through the Redcliff Lord’s forehead, they had already expected this. Now that the Redcliff Lord had openly announced it, the results became conﬁrmed.

“Linley!” Someone cheered jubilantly.

“LINLEY!” The cheer seemed to be infectious, and the countless people below all began to cheer in celebration. They all knew…

Yet another miracle had occurred!

Having defeated the previous Redcliff Lord, a new Redcliff Lord, Linley, was born!

“Swoosh!” Bebe ﬂew into the skies.

He ﬂew to Linley’s side, excitedly looking at Linley. “Boss, you succeeded! Haha! A Lord of Tartarus. That’s someone on the same level as a Purgatory Commander or a Lord Prefect of the Infernal Realm.” Linley stared down at the scene of the countless thronging, celebrating masses. He couldn’t help but have a feeling as though he was apart from the rest of the world.

He still remembered how…

When he just entered the Infernal Realm, he had hidden within the Black Dragon tribe.

How nerve-wracking the Fiend trials had been.

It seemed as though, in the blink of an eye, he had somehow become a Lord of Tartarus!

“Bebe, we are ﬁnally qualiﬁed to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld.” Linley laughed.

“Right.” Bebe laughed happily as well.

Linley and Bebe, these two brothers, were currently high in midair chatting. They didn’t notice whatsoever that an old, familiar face was currently amongst the countless thronging masses below them.

A man dressed in a white robe, with long, unbound black hair, and a pair of scarlet eyebrows!

He was smiling as he looked at Linley and Bebe in the air. This person, amazingly, was the supreme expert who had provided guidance to Linley when Linley was young…Blueﬁre!

“It seems Beirut was worried over nothing. Linley’s power is even greater than I had imagined. There’s no need for me to remain here…oh, and the Planar Wars are currently proceeding. I need to come up with a way to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld and watch.” Blueﬁre immediately turned and left.

His body was very real, but when he walked away, it seemed to become like a mirage.

In the blink of an eye, he easily traversed the massive, dense crowd of a hundred million Deities. When exited the crowd, his body seemed to transform into a blurry, ﬁery illusion. Transforming into red ﬂash of light later, he disappeared into the horizon.

In terms of speed alone…

He was, amazingly enough, even faster than the former ‘Redcliff Lord’, who had shocked Linley with his speed. From today onwards, the estate of the Redcliff Lord was now Linley’s estate.

“Your Lordship.” Ganmoly said respectfully. Ganmoly now had the feeling as though there truly was no such thing as permanence in this world; not long ago, he was leading Linley to pay his respects to the former Redcliff Lord, but in the blink of an eye…Linley had become the current Redcliff Lord. But of course, he knew…that Linley was actually an Elder of the Azure Dragon clan.

Linley glanced at Ganmoly, then said, “Ganmoly, I wish to ask you something. If I wish to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld, do I need to bring any proof of my status?”

“No need.” Ganmoly laughed immediately. “Your Lordship, don’t worry. Once a person defeats the previous Lord and replaces him, the news will, within a single day, become known throughout the various estates of the Lords of Tartarus. At the same time, information regarding you will also spread to Flamebone Mountain.”

Linley nodded slightly.

“All you need to go is head over there, your Lordship. They will naturally recognize you, your Lordship. At most…your Lordship, you might just simply reveal that legendary sword of yours, which can become invisible.” Ganmoly laughed.

“A single day?” Linley nodded slightly.

“Bebe.” Linley turned to look.

“Eh?” Bebe was currently seated on a distant chair, chomping on some of the fruit that was local to the Netherworld. “What is it, Boss?”

“In a day, Flamebone Mountain will have my information.

Tell me, when should we head out?” Linley laughed.

“A day?” Bebe immediately leapt to his feet. “Damn, ﬂying over to Flamebone Mountain a long period of time as well. Boss, let’s hurry up and head out right away!” “Right away?” Linley was stunned, but then he laughed.

Ganmoly was rather surprised as well.

“Right.” Bebe suddenly turned to stare at Ganmoly, then instructed, “Ganmoly, these fruits aren’t bad. Prepare some extras and bring them over. I plan to eat them on the way.”

“Uh….yes!” Ganmoly acknowledged.

Chapter 12, Four Badge Colors

Flamebone Mountain. The entire mountain swirled with ﬂame.

Two blurs streaked through the horizon, pausing in the air above Flamebone Mountain. It was Linley and Bebe.

“Crunch!” Bebe viciously bit into a fruit, lowering his head to stare down at the mountain peak below. “Boss, last time we came to this place, we were blocked by those guards. It was because we weren’t Lord Prefects or Lords of Tartarus. It’s only been two or three months, right? Boss, you are a Tartarus Lord now. I wonder what sort of looks those guards will have on their faces.”

As he spoke, he casually tossed the core of the already-eaten fruit off to one side.

“Let’s go.” Laughing calmly, Linley ﬂew into the skies, with Bebe following behind. Atop the mountain peak, there was a completely pitch-black, ancient-looking castle. It, too, was wreathed in ﬂames. There were still many guards patrolling outside, and at the front gate, there were more than ten people, divided into two lines, standing there. Upon seeing Linley and Bebe, one of the black- armored guards stepped forward slightly. “Eh? Them again?”

This black-armored guard, amazingly, was the guard who had received Linley last time.

It had only been a few months, after all. The guards here were very rarely changed.

“Hey, why did you two run over here again?” The black- armored guard couldn’t help but frown as he spoke. “Last time, I told you two already. We can only open the interspatial gate to Lords of Tartarus or Lord Prefects.”

Linley and Bebe landed.

“Boss, these guards don’t to know your status.” Bebe said, puzzled. “Didn’t that guy say that in one day, your information would spread to Flamebone Mountain? Why don’t these guards know? We spent quite a few days ﬂying from Flamebone Mountain to this place. Boss, your information should have arrived here long ago.”

Linley glanced at the guards, then laughed calmly. “Information regarding me should have made its way to the high level members of Flamebone Mountain, but these ordinary soldiers haven’t gotten the word yet.” Linley didn’t want to waste words with these ordinary guards, and so he immediately strode forward. His sudden movement forward naturally caused these guards to all feel surprised.

“Halt!” More than ten guards stared at Linley.

“The two of you, this is no ordinary place. You can’t just barge in. We aren’t able to stop you, but you don’t dare offend the Sovereign either, right?” The leader of the black-armored guards stared at Linley and Bebe with his blue eyes. Last time, they already learned of Linley and Bebe’s power, and so they didn’t dare to act too wildly.

“I am the Redcliff Lord.” Linley said calmly.

“Eh?”

The ten-plus black-armored guards were instantly stupeﬁed.

“You must be joking.” The black-armored guard couldn’t believe it. Laughing, he looked at Linley. “It’s only been a few months.”

First, a hundred victories in the arena. Then, the challenge to a Lord of Tartarus…resulting in victory! All in just a few months? This sort of speed was far too fast. The black-armored guards didn’t dare to believe it.

“Stop wasting words.” Bebe shouted impatiently. “If my Boss tells you that he is, then he is! Hurry up and ﬁnd your leader. He will deﬁnitely know the news regarding the new Redcliff Lord, Linley.”

“Eh?” The black-armored guards looked at each other, then studied the looks on Linley and Bebe’s faces carefully.

“Captain, they seem to be telling the truth.” The black- armored guards whispered to each other secretly through divine sense.

“But it’s only been a few months. This is too wild.”

Although the black-armored guards all felt it was crazy, the leading black-armored guard still said, “Fine, I’ll go make the inquiries. Please wait here, the two of you.” After speaking, the black-armored guard immediately ﬂew into the depths of the castle, while Linley and Bebe waited patiently outside.

The remaining black-armored guards continued to stare at Linley and Bebe in surprise.

These black-armored guards clearly didn’t dare believe it.

Quite a while later…

“Redcliff Lord, Redcliff Lord!” A deep voice rang out. Linley and Bebe turned to look, only to see a muscular, blue-armored man who was slightly taller than even Linley stride out with big steps. The black-armored guard behind him stared at Linley in amazement. The blue-armored man’s gaze fell directly upon Linley, and his eyes immediately lit up.

“Redcliff Lord, we just received word not long ago, and we weren’t in a hurry to pass it down. Who would have imagined that you would come here so quickly, Redcliff Lord?” The blue- armored man chortled as he spoke. “Oh, let me introduce myself. I am Dilas [Ji’la’si]!”

“Linley.” Linley laughed in acknowledgment.

Hearing Linley report his name, the muscular, blue-armored man nodded and laughed, “Given that we received information regarding you already, we are certain of your status, especially upon seeing this youth by your side. However, your Lordship, please still provide some small bit of proof for us. You can either Dragonform or show off that invisible, godly sword you possess.”

Linley just stretched out his right hand.

Azure-golden scales instantly covered his hand.

“That’s more than enough.” The muscular, blue-armored man laughed. “Please pardon us. We do indeed need to be cautious. Let me lead the way, your Lordship. Please follow me.”

Linley and Bebe followed this muscular, blue-armored man inwards.

Bebe turned his head to glance sideways at the black-armored guards, intentionally letting out a sniff. “He really is a Lord of Tartarus!” The leader of the black- armored guards rubbed his nose, sighing in disbelief. “How long has it been? Last time, we waved them off, but in the blink of an eye, he’s a Lord of Tartarus.”

“This Lord Linley is fairly good-tempered. If it was the likes of the Flamebone Lord, Captain, and you dared to be so disrespectful, you most likely would have been killed in a ﬁt of anger.” The nearby black-armored guards smirked and laughed. Although…this castle belonged to the Sovereign, the normal affairs of the castle were carried out by a Sovereign’s Emissary.

The Sovereign’s Emissary was the one who arranged for these guards to be present. If a Lord of Tartarus killed a petty guard, would the Sovereign’s Emissary get into a dispute with a Lord of Tartarus, for the sake of the petty guard?

“When I think about it, it is rather frightening. Still, I continue to feel as though I’m in a dream.” The black-armored guard couldn’t help but look towards the direction in which Linley and Bebe had just walked, shaking his head and sighing. Linley and Bebe, under the guidance of the blue-armored Dilas, continued to advance down a wide corridor. This wide corridor actually slowly went deeper into the ground. Although it went downwards, it was still wide enough for more than ten people to traverse simultaneously, and was at least ten meters high.

Only, given that they were underground, it was rather dark.

“The interspatial gate was built in the heart of the Flamebone Mountain.” The muscular ‘Dilas’ walked while laughing and explaining. “The Planar Battleﬁeld is connected to the Seven Divine Planes and the Four Higher Realms. In total, there are eleven interspatial gates. According to legend… this great work was completed by the four Overgods working in unison.”

“In unison?” Linley said, amazed.

Indeed, only the likes of an Overgod could construct interspatial gates of this level. However, Linley hadn’t imagined that the four Overgods actually joined forces for it.

“Hehe, your Lordship, that’s just what I’ve heard.” Dilas chortled.

“Overgods…Overgods…they are so powerful, but I’ve never seen one.” Bebe muttered.

Dilas just said with a laugh, “Never seen one? The Overgods are always around you.”

“Oh?” Bebe stared.

“We are always surrounded by and live within the Laws and the Edicts. The four Overgods are the embodiment of the four great Edicts. Naturally, they are always by your side.” Dilas said with a smile, and then he glanced towards the front. “Oh, we’re almost there! The interspatial gate is just up ahead. His Lordship is there awaiting you two.”

Linley looked forward. He could faintly sense a unique aura from up ahead.

At the end of the corridor was an extremely wide, heavily guarded chamber. In the center of the chamber, there was a black pool that was around ten meters in diameter. In the center of the pool, there was a ‘gate’ that was ﬁve meters long, ten meters high. This gate stood there in the center of the pool, emanating a black light. Linley could sense that the unique aura was coming from within it.

“Lord Linley.” A voice rang out.

Linley turned and saw that in the left side of the hall, there was a silver-haired elder as well as a group of blue-armored guards.

The silver-haired elder smiled as he walked over. “We just saw the news regarding you not long ago, Lord Linley. So you are a member of the Azure Dragon clan. I am old friends with Patriarch Gislason of your Azure Dragon clan. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Gallen [Gao’lun]!” “Mr. Gallen.” Linley smiled. “I wish to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld. I’m not sure what I need to do?”

“This is simple.” The silver-haired elder made a pair of palm- sized badges appear in his hand. These two badges emanated a black aura, but although both were covered with black light, they were made from different materials. One was made from a completely blood-red material, while the other was made from a completely black material. “Of the two badges, the blood-red one represents a ‘commander’, while this black one represents an ordinary soldier! At the same time…it also represents that you two belong to the side of ‘Darkness’ in this battle.”

As he spoke, he delivered the two badges, which ﬂew to Linley and Bebe.

Linley accepted the blood-red badge, while Bebe accepted the black one.

“Please bind them and take them into your body.” The silver- haired elder laughed calmly as he spoke. “After you enter the Planar Battleﬁeld, if you encounter someone on the same side, once you draw near, you’ll be able to sense each other’s badge’s aura.”

Linley laughed. This was the same concept as the badges of the Four Divine Beasts clan.

Linley and Bebe immediately bound the badges by blood and took them into their bodies.

“The two of you, the stone tablet over here has some information regarding military merits carved into it. Please take a look.” The silver-haired elder pointed to a nearby stone tablet that was erect against the wall, roughly one meter wide and three meters tall.

“Military merits?”

Linley and Bebe’s eyes lit up. This time, Linley had come especially for the sake of accumulating military merits. He immediately walked to the stone tablet, looking through it carefully.

The information on the stone tablet was quite simple, but upon seeing it, Linley took a deep breath.

“How brutal.” Linley said to himself.

The rules of the Planar Wars…

Each war was divided into two sides. One side’s commanders would have red badges, with the soldiers having black badges. The other side’s commanders would have gold badges, with the soldiers having white badges. To become a commander, one had to be a Tartarus Lord, a Lord Prefect, an Asura, or someone on the same level. As for soldiers…they had to be Highgods.

For example, Linley and Bebe.

If they killed someone on their own side, they wouldn’t have rendered any military merits.

Only by killing enemies and acquiring a hundred white badges would they acquire a single drop of Sovereign’s Might. Upon acquiring ten thousand white badges, they would be able to acquire a Sovereign artifact. But of course, if they gained ten gold badges, they could also trade for a Sovereign artifact.

However, there was one thing…gold badges couldn’t be traded for Sovereign’s Might! To trade for Sovereign’s Might, one had to acquire white badges.

This destroyed any chance of one being able to acquire a large amount of Sovereign’s Might.

In addition, if one managed to kill ﬁve enemy commanders during the Planar Wars, after the battle concluded, the military merits could be recorded. Once the next Planar Wars began, if one killed ﬁve more commanders, the total military merits rendered would be ten, and by then, one could still trade for a Sovereign artifact. “So it is cumulative?” Linley sighed. “And one has to kill ordinary soldiers? Isn’t that…just butchery?”

“Although it seems simple, the ordinary soldiers are all gathered in one place. To kill a hundred of them? You’d most likely suffer the attacks of ten thousand soldiers. Most Six Star Fiends and Seven Star Fiends possess spiritual attacks that are a tenth the power of a Lord Prefect’s. But an attack from ten thousand…even a Lord of Tartarus would have to ﬂee, and would be killed if he didn’t ﬂee fast enough.” The silver-haired elder, Gallen, said with a calm laugh.

Linley couldn’t help but nod.

If a commander encountered ten or perhaps a few dozen soldiers, it wouldn’t be too hard to massacre them.

But if the commander encountered a thousand or more than ten thousand soldiers…attacking would be suicide.

“Every single commander is hard to kill. Everyone who dares to enter has their own ways of preserving their lives. Thus, that’s why military merits can be accumulated over time!” The silver-haired elder, Gallen, said with a calm laugh. “If you take part in several Planar Wars, you’ll be able to accumulate enough military merits. But of course, you also might lose your life in the Planar Wars, resulting in all your efforts being for naught.”

Linley nodded slightly.

“Mr. Gallen, we’ll head in, then.” Linley immediately said.

Chapter 13, Dangerous

“Then let me wish you, Mr. Linley, a successful venture and return for the two of you.” The silver-haired elder, Gellen, laughed calmly. Suddenly, he thought of something and said hurriedly, “Right, Lord Linley, I don’t know if you know or not, but once you participate in the Planar War, you will only be permitted to depart once this Planar War concludes.”

“Eh?” Linley turned to look at him.

“Lord Linley, so you really didn’t know.” The silver-haired elder, Gellen, laughed. “This is a rule. You can choose to enter at any time, but everyone who enters…must wait for the war to conclude before leaving. You are not permitted to leave in the middle, nor is it possible for you to leave in the middle.”

“I have to wait eight centuries?” Linley frowned.

His original plan had been for him and Bebe to seize every available moment to complete their mission early on, then hurry back.

“I’m thinking too highly of myself. How could commanders be easily killed? Eight hundred years…I’ll have to just ﬁght for eight hundred years within then.” Linley now understood why so many Lord Prefects, Tartarus Lords, and others weren’t willing to enter the Planar Wars.

Even if you rendered military merits, you would have to wait until everything concluded, and even if you didn’t attack others, others might attack you.

“Boss, let’s go on in.” Bebe was completely fearless.

Linley nodded, then ﬂew with Bebe towards the interspatial gate.

Five meters wide, ten meters tall, and emanating with that black aura. Linley and Bebe ﬂew through the interspatial gate, and as they did, it was like entering a pool of water. The two disappeared from the wide hall. “I wonder if they’ll return alive.” Gellen shook his head slightly.

When Linley had been in the Yulan continent, he had passed through an interspatial gate to arrive at the Necropolis of the Gods plane.

But this time, the passage through the interspatial gate was a completely different experience.

“This interspatial door is actually an extremely long corridor.” Linley was rather surprised, while Bebe also stared at their surroundings in surprise.

The ﬁve meter wide, ten meter high corridor had walls which were covered with ﬂowing streaks of light. Everything seemed so beautiful and dazzling. Linley and Bebe followed the direction of the interspatial corridor, ﬂying towards the front. Linley was stunned. “This corridor seems to distort space itself.”

While ﬂying, Linley had the sense of space being distorted.

“Boss, tell me, if I were to attack this corridor, would it collapse?” Bebe said.

Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart clench, and he gave Bebe a glare. “Bebe, don’t cause trouble. If this interspatial corridor really collapses, you and I will be trapped within a region of chaotic space. That would be disastrous.” Linley knew very well that even the most powerful of Highgods, upon entering a region of chaotic space, might be ﬁnished.

“I’m just saying.” Bebe mumbled.

Suddenly…

Linley noticed that there was a faint glow coming from the front of the tunnel. “Eh? We made it?”

Linley and Bebe immediately exited the tunnel. “Welcome, milords.” A voice that was neither humble nor loud rang out. Linley and Bebe turned to look towards the voice before even having a chance to inspect the battleﬁeld. The ground in front of them was dark and gloomy, and standing atop the ground was a large group of people. Linley swept them with his gaze. “Hundreds!”

Only, Linley also noticed the aura from their badges as well now.

They were on his side!

Only now did Linley let out a sigh of relief. The person who had just spoken was a red-haired, grim-looking woman. She continued, “Milords, is this your ﬁrst time in the Planar Battleﬁeld, or have you had previous experiences?”

Linley couldn’t help but frown.

“Milord, please don’t be upset.” The red-haired, grim-looking woman hurriedly smiled. “We are under orders to guard the interspatial gate that leads to the Planar Battleﬁeld from the Netherworld. Our Lord has instructed us that if there is anyone who is new to the Planar Battleﬁeld and isn’t familiar with it, that his Lordship can receive you and also provide you with some information, milords.”

Linley and Bebe exchanged glances.

“Boss, let’s go. What’s there to fear?” Bebe sent mentally.

Linley, too, felt that given how they were completely unfamiliar with this Planar Battleﬁeld, it was best to get a better understanding of it.

“Fine, then. You lead the way.” Linley said.

“Please follow me.” The red-haired woman said, then immediately led Linley outwards.

Linley and Bebe, when advancing, carefully applied his senses to his surroundings. When he did, he sighed in astonishment. “The gravity in this battleﬁeld is actually even greater than that of the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm! This is the plane with the greatest gravity I have ever seen. In addition, divine sense is restricted to an incredibly extent as well.

Linley realized that his divine sense was now constrained to a range of just a hundred meters or so.

“My two Lords, according to the legends, this battleﬁeld was created jointly by the four Overgods.” The red-haired woman laughed as she spoke. “Even the Higher Realms, such as the Netherworld or the Celestial Realm, were created by the four Overgods separately. This battleﬁeld, in terms of stability, is far more stable than even the Higher Realms. In this place, it is hard for even commanders to be able to tear open space.”

Linley couldn’t help but feel secretly surprised.

The more stable a plane was, the more powerful gravity generally was in it, as well as the restrictive, binding force. Linley glanced at the air.

In the air above this plane, there were no stars. Extremely high in the sky, there were some wild, chaotic, multi-colored regions of chaotic space. The entire plane was covered in darkness, and only those multi-colored patches of chaotic space were able to provide some illumination. This caused the battleﬁeld to always seem dark and gloomy.

“Hey, what’s going on up there?” Bebe spoke out.

The red-haired woman laughed. “The space above the Planar Battleﬁeld is very dangerous. As you ﬂy upwards, once you reach a certain height, you will occasionally encounter spatial tears. If you go up even farther, the spatial tears will become more dense…until you enter the region of chaotic space. Thus, when battling, be careful not to let yourself fall into the chaotic space.

Linley and Bebe glanced at each other. It seemed as though the environment in this damnable place was quite vile as well.

“The battles of the Planar Wars have one proscription; one cannot ﬂy too high, or too deep into the ground! The red- haired woman said with a calm laugh. “If you dig deep into the ground, if you go a bit too deep, you will very possibly encounter more spatial tears. The deeper you go, the more numerous the spatial tears will be.”

Linley nodded slightly.

“How troublesome.” Bebe mumbled.

While chatting, Linley noticed that the surrounding soldiers were growing more and more numerous. Clearly, they had arrived at a headquarters. The red-haired woman, in a very familiar manner, led Linley to an ordinary tent, then instructed Linley and Bebe, “My two Lords, please wait here for now.” Linley and Bebe were rather puzzled. They couldn’t even go close to the tent? But they didn’t ask.

The red-haired woman said respectfully towards the tent, “Your Lordship, just now, two Lords have arrived from the Netherworld. I brought them over.”

“Oh?” A ﬁgure strode over from within the tent.

This was a muscular bald youth, dressed in a thick black robe. His forehead had a red spot on it. He gave Linley and Bebe a glance, then said, rather puzzled, “I don’t seem to have met you two before.”

“My Boss is the new Redcliff Lord.” Bebe said directly.

“Oh.” The black-robed, bald youth glanced sideways at Linley, not fully convinced. He said calmly, “Since you have come over, it would appear that this is your ﬁrst time. I have a map of this Planar Battleﬁeld here, with descriptions of various areas. You can take a look.” As he spoke, he waved his hand, tossing a very thin piece of parchment with black seals atop it.

Linley laughed calmly while accepting it. “Thank you!”

“Boss, this baldy seems to be on guard against us.” Bebe said. “In fact, he even maintains some distance from us and doesn’t invite us in. We just arrived from the Netherworld and are on his side. Why is he so guarded against us? I don’t get it”.

“He is indeed guarded, but let’s not worry about that. We’ll leave soon.”

Linley, as well, had noticed that this black-robed, bald youth was wary of the two of them. Although he didn’t understand why, he still said, “The two of us have some other matters to take care of. We won’t tarry here. We’re leaving now.”

“Then be careful on your journey.” Only now did the black- robed, bald youth reveal a hint of a smile on his face. “Neana [Ne’an’na], you represent me in escorting these two away.”

“Yes, your Lordship.” The red-haired woman bowed.

And then, under her guidance, Linley and Bebe left the headquarters. At the borders of the headquarters, the red- haired woman bade farewell to Linley and Bebe. She watched as the two left. “How strange. His Lordship should have invited them over for the purpose of allying with them! But…his Lordship actually didn’t recognize them. What a pity, what a pity!”

For them to enter the Netherworld on their own meant that one of the two deﬁnitely had to be someone on the Tartarus Lord or Lord Prefect level.

The black-robed bald youth had wanted to show them some hospitality, but unfortunately, he didn’t know Linley at all, nor did he offer to work together.

Atop the vast earth, Linley and Bebe were currently seated shoulder-to-shoulder, in the valley of a mountain, ﬂipping through some information which gave a basic introduction to the Planar Battleﬁeld. “This Planar Battleﬁeld really is small, with a circumference of just a million kilometers. However…it is separated by the ‘Stellar River’ and divided into two parts. Our Divine Darkness Plane is on this side of the Stellar River, while the Divine Light Plane’s armies are on the other side.” Linley, after reading, learned many things.

Bebe sighed in amazement, “Boss, so the most dangerous places aren’t the skies; the most dangerous places are deep underground. And the Stellar River!”

“Right.” Linley nodded as well.

In midair, one could still ﬂy to a certain height. Only after ﬂying even higher than that safe height would one occasionally begin to encounter some spatial tears, with the higher regions growing increasingly dangerous. Because there was an orderly increase in the danger, everyone was prepared, and they would be careful not to exceed the safe height.

But the Stellar River was different. There were very few ‘safe zones’ in the Stellar River. The vast majority of it was extremely dangerous.

“This Planar Battleﬁeld seems like two smaller planes that were joined together. This Stellear River is the line at which the juncture was made. Some ‘juncture points’ are safe, but the areas around most juncture points are wild, chaotic space.” Linley shook his head. The description given by this book seemed to be rather frightening. But Linley and Bebe had never before seen the place, and so weren’t able to tell for now how dangerous the Stellar River really was.

“We’re going to go kill commanders. It seems we have to go past the Stellar River.” Bebe murmured.

“No.” Linley shook his head. “Just like us, there must be many commanders who have come to help out. Perhaps there are many who are moving independently as well. They want to kill our people, and so they too will cross the Stellar Side and arrive here on our side. There’s no need for us to go there for now. We’ll run into them here.”

Bebe, hearing this, couldn’t help but nod.

“Boss, these Planar Wars have been going on for a hundred years now.” Bebe suddenly said.

“Right, thus, the enemy leaders have sent probably quite a few who have come to this place.” Linley looked around himself vigilantly. “Now that we are in an unfamiliar place, we need to constantly be on guard. This is a battleﬁeld, after all, not an arena for challenges. They won’t necessary act openly and honestly.”

“What is there to fear? I want to run into them.” Bebe was completely conﬁdent.

“Then let’s head out for now.”

Linley and Bebe immediately stood up. There were no stars in this Planar Battleﬁeld. If one wanted to differentiate between the directions, the only way was to use some tall mountains and rivers as landmarks. “Then let’s head that way.” Linley saw a squad mountain in the distance, and immediately spoke out.

Linley and Bebe both carefully made their way through the Planar Battleﬁeld. Aside from some army camps which seemed quite active, the other places were all extremely quiet. What they didn’t know…was if that behind the quiet silence, there was a hidden expert commander or not. Or perhaps an expert on the level of Beirut.

“Eh?” Bebe suddenly turned his head and looked towards the distance. “Boss, there’s someone there!”

Linley stooped down, carefully relying on the grass to block his presence as he stared from afar. Roughly a thousand meters away, a blurred, black-light suddenly appeared and was advancing straight for them.

Chapter 14, Ambushed

They had only been ﬂying in the Planar Battleﬁeld for less than half a day, but ended up actually encountering a lone traveler. Linley knew that ordinary soldiers couldn’t possibly be travelling alone.

“Move closer!”

Linley said mentally. What Linley now had to do was… discover if this was someone on their side, or an enemy. Linley and Bebe quietly advanced through the grass, drawing closer, not daring to release even the slightest hint of energy, for fear of enemy discovery. Moments later, the distance between the two was reduced to two hundred meters.

“Eh? I can’t sense the badge aura from him.” Bebe sent.

Linley couldn’t help but feel excited. “An enemy!” People on the same side would be able to sense their allies’ badges. Being unable to sense the badge…meant it was an enemy!

“Haha, I didn’t expect that as soon as we arrived in the Planar Battleﬁeld, we’d encounter an enemy. It is probably a commander.” Bebe’s eyes lit up. “Boss, hand this one to me. I’ll get rid of him.”

“Right.” Linley suppressed his excitement.

“Swoosh!” Bebe suddenly ﬂew into the air.

A blurry, enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat suddenly appeared behind Bebe. At this moment, Bebe, not hesitating at all, used his supreme technique – his innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’! But the strange thing was that the ﬁgure didn’t collapse; it turned to look towards Bebe.

“Boss, I can’t sense his divine spark or his soul!” Bebe said frantically. “Right, there’s another person nearby. I can sense the aura from his badge. He’s not too far from us. He belongs to our side.”

Right at this moment, someone suddenly appeared in the distance. This person knew that he had been discovered.

“The two of you!” The gray-robed ﬁgure said clearly. “Stop attacking that black-robed ﬁgure. That’s my Deathgod Golem.”

“Golem?”

Bebe and Linley were stunned.

“So it was a golem. No wonder I couldn’t sense its aura. No wonder, when Bebe used his innate divine ability, he failed.” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The gray-robed man turned and was about to leave, but Bebe called out, “Hey, don’t leave in such a hurry!” As he spoke, he ﬂew over. “Swoosh!” The Deathgod Golem immediately ﬂew over, wanting to block Bebe while speaking in the human language, “What are you intending to do?”

“We are on the same side. Can’t I ask a few questions?” Bebe stared at the Deathgod Golem.

The gray-robed ﬁgure himself was already far away. The Deathgod Golem he left behind naturally wasn’t something he was worried for; even if he lost it, that just meant he had one less golem.

“The two of you…” The Deathgod Golem said calmly. “How do I know if you are on my side? Perhaps the two of you killed some ordinary soldiers of my side, and then bound the badges with blood and used them to disguise yourselves. Who can be certain as to whether or not you two are fakes?”

Linley and Bebe were stunned.

It was possible to be imposters?

But when he thought about it carefully, it made sense. All they had to do was come up with a way to kill an ordinary soldier, then remove their own badge before binding an enemy badge. Thusly done, they would have a disguise. Once the Planar War ended, they could simply put their own badges back on. Linley and Bebe hadn’t thought of this yet.

“Even if you aren’t imposters, people on the same side can still kill each other!” The Deathgod Golem said, then left.

Linley and Bebe didn’t try to stop the Deathgod Golem.

“Boss, I’m starting to understand why that allied camp commander was so wary of us.” Bebe said. “He was just like that previous person; afraid we would act against him.” Bebe also understand that it wasn’t that they were afraid of the two of them; rather, they couldn’t be bothered to kill people on the same side.

This was because even in success, there would be no military merits gained.

But in failure, one’s life would be lost. Naturally, the gray- robed man had chosen to leave.

“He was afraid we’d kill him?” Linley said helplessly. “But I won’t gain any military merits for killing him. Oh, wait!” Linley had a sudden thought, and he ﬁnally understood why it was possible for people on the same side to want to ﬁght each other.

“Eh?” Bebe looked at Linley, puzzled.

“People on the same side…might kill each other as well.” Linley sighed emotionally.

“How can that be?” Bebe didn’t understand.

“It’s simple. Two people who are close friends. One enters the side of the Divine Darkness Plane, the other enters the side of the Divine Light Plane. For example, Bebe, you and I might be located in opposing camps. I’ll kill people on my side and obtain red badges, which are useless to me, but I can give them to you! And when you kill someone on your side and acquire a golden badge, you can give it to me to use.” Linley smiled bitterly.

Bebe now understood as well.

The Lord Prefects, Tartarus Lords, and others who were supreme amongst Highgods had many friends at the same level. For example, Beirut; he might even have friends of the same level in the Celestial Realm. They absolutely could join different camps and use this strategy.

“Thus, we can’t trust people on our side, unless we know them well.” Linley said with resignation.

No wonder the black-robed, bald youth, upon realizing that he didn’t recognize Linley, immediately had Linley leave.

“It seems we need to be careful as well.” Bebe pursed his lips. “Even if we encounter allies, we can’t be too careless.” “Right.” Linley, too, began to feel how dangerous these Planar Wars were.

Aside from true friends, outsiders were not to be trusted.

And the status imparted by a badge might not be true!

“Just now, that fellow was quite clever to use a Deathgod Golem as bait.” Bebe said with a chortle. “Boss, we can do this also. Nobody, regardless of the side, will be able to sense the aura of a badge on a Deathgod Golem. They’ll take the golem to be an enemy and ambush it! We’ll hide nearby and counter- ambush them instead.”

Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

This was indeed a good method.

The Planar Battleﬁeld was a million kilometers in diameter. If one ﬂew at high speed, it wasn’t a very long distance, but in this sort of place, where attacks and battles occurred in secret…in such a large area, the few dozen or a few hundred commanders would be like drops of water in the sea. If they were hidden somewhere, it would be very hard to ﬁnd them.

Within a mountain cavern. Linley and Bebe were within the cavern, while each of them also controlled a Deathgod Golem, ﬂying not too far away from them.

“We encountered a person when we ﬁrst entered the Planar Battleﬁeld, but now it’s been another month, and we haven’t encountered anyone.” Bebe mumbled. “Based on what you said, Boss, we have to be careful even when just travelling around. This sort of slow, plodding pace…how long is it going to take for us to reach the Stellar River.”

“Don’t be impatient.”

Linley laughed as he spoke. He was very patient. “It is possible for battles to occur between commanders in any location here in the Planar Battleﬁeld. We don’t need to run around wildly. Doing so would be very dangerous, and the chances of encountering someone isn’t that high either. If we occasionally set up an ambush, our chances might be higher.

“But if everyone is waiting in ambush, then nobody will encounter anybody.” Bebe rebutted.

“That’s why we’ll advance a little bit every few months, changing every so often.” Linley said calmly. “We have eight centuries! Plenty of time!”

What was most critical in a place like this Planar Battleﬁeld was patience. Whoever became impatient and revealed their traces would most likely be observed by others, which would make things dangerous. Linley knew how much power he had…a commander specialized in soul attacks would make things tough for him. And….most commander-level experts were skilled in soul attacks!!!

“If you aren’t able to keep waiting, you start training.” Linley said with a laugh.

“Got it.” Bebe pursed his lips. Linley, too, had his true body in a state of maximum vigilance, while his divine clones were focused on training.

Who amongst the commanders weren’t elites? In addition, quite a few of the commanders had been in the Planar Battleﬁeld before. All of them had their own strategies.

Linley’s cautious, guarded approach produced no results in the ﬁrst three months. Although they did encounter one person, that person was on their side as well, and so Linley and Bebe didn’t attack.

“Let’s change places! Most likely, there are very few enemy commanders who will pass through this place.”

“Boss, you should’ve made this decision long ago. As I see it, let’s go to the other side of the Stellar River. I imagine that the enemy camp must have quite a few enemy commanders!”

After having waited for three months, in the end, Linley still decided to leave this mountain cave. That very day…Linley and Bebe slept away, advancing forward towards the Stellar Sea.

Within a squat but large mountain, there was actually a spacious room.

A violet-robed, black-haired man was currently seated in the meditative position, while three people were seated next to him. Suddenly, a ﬁgure emerged from the stairs below. Bowing, he said, “Milord, our people outside have discovered the forces of the Divine Plane of Darkness. One is a youth, while the other is a youngster! Master, these two people aren’t in the documents you provided.”

“Oh, strangers?” The violet-robed, black-haired man opened his eyes, a hint of violet light ﬂashing through them.

“Yes, Master.” The ﬁgure bowed.

“Very good. It’s time to go hunting.” The violet-robed, black- haired man’s body swayed, then disappeared from the secret room. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley wanted to ambush others, but others wanted to ambush Linley as well. It all came down to whose detection skills were better, whose stealth skills were better, whose strategies were better! This was Linley and Bebe’s ﬁrst time in the Planar Battleﬁeld. They had too few experiences to rely upon, and so it really was quite hard for them to attempt to ambush others.

But now…

They had been locked onto by others!

“Boss, which place should we set up camp? How about let’s head directly to the side of the Stellar Sea, right over there… hmph, if someone comes over, we’ll go ﬁght them.” Bebe sent mentally. He had no hesitation in his eyes; rather, he had a hint of excitement.

“If we just set up camp by the river, we’ll be treated by others as a punching back.”

Linley’s forehead suddenly creased.

“What is it?” Bebe said, puzzled.

“Swoosh!”

Linley suddenly turned his head, only to see a blurry, translucent white arrow instantly arrive in front of him.

Linley’s ﬁrst reaction was…

“Rumble…” An earthen yellow light exploded forth from his body, instantly encapsulating a region of a thousand meters. This was Linley’s supreme technique…Blackstone Space!

The direction of the gravity was towards Linley!

“Crunch!” The translucent white arrow entered his body.

The speed was too fast. Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all. “Bebe, kill that assailant!” Linley only had the chance to give this single shout through divine sense, then whole-heartedly focused on defending against the soul attack.

“BANG!”

The translucent arrow continued to inexorably strike towards Linley’s soul, but when it smashed against the translucent scaled membrane, it instantly shattered, transforming into white specks of light. These specks of light instantly discovered that the defensive power at the damaged hole was weaker, and immediately attacked there.

“Crackle…” Linley’s azure spiritual energy transformed into rays of invisible sword-ripples, repeatedly smashing against the white spots of light.

“Who is this? Reisgem? The appearance is completely off, but the gravity is so strong…fortunately, I started far away.” The violet ﬁgure was originally within a few hundred meters of Linley when he launched his ambush. If he had been closer, Linley and Bebe would have discovered him.

Although Linley’s Blackstone Space was set up to cover a large distance, the violet-robed ﬁgure was very fast. While resisting the power of the gravity, he managed to ﬂee the Blackstone Space region. But as he ﬂed from the region, Bebe reached a distance of just two or three hundred meters from him.

“SHKREEEEEEEEE!”

The enraged Bebe once more used his innate divine ability.

“Eh?” The violet-robed man, who had continuously paid attention to the space behind him, was terriﬁed upon seeing the enormous phantom of a Godeater Rat. “Just now, that was Reisgem’s supreme technique, but this one is Beirut’s!” The violet-robed man’s body suddenly exploded with white light. It was Sovereign’s Might!

His speed instantly increased to a new limit. “Rumble!” The strange ripples of Bebe’s innate divine ability ﬂew towards him at high speed!

“Dammit, I let him get away!” Bebe said discontentedly.

His innate divine ability was executed through relying on his spiritual energy, and there was a process of waves, as well as a distance limit. Bebe had been two or three hundred meters away to begin with. Given that in this moment of crisis, the enemy had also used up a drop of Sovereign’s Might to ﬂee at full speed, the enemy had managed to put enough distance between them.

“What is going on? Those two young strangers…one actually had Reisgem’s supreme technique, while the other had Beirut’s supreme technique. What incredibly bad luck. Today, I, Oona [Wu’a’na], very nearly died in their hands. I didn’t get anything, but ended up using a drop of Sovereign’s Might. Jeeze!” The violet-robed man felt extremely discontent as well. “Not good…as my Sovereign’s Might continues to leak outwards, it’ll deﬁnitely attract the attention of other commanders. Terrible, terrible!

Chapter 15, A Choice

Bebe was still staring unhappily towards the direction in which the violet-robed man had ran. Unfortunately, the violet- robed man’s speed was normally above his to begin with. After using Sovereign’s Might, he vastly outstripped Bebe. Bebe could do nothing besides just watch as the man ﬂed. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he was slower, Bebe wouldn’t have used his innate divine ability at the earlier distance of two or three hundred meters.

“Just consider yourself lucky!”

Bebe glanced warily at the surrounding area, then turned and shot back towards Linley like an arrow.

“Boss, are you alright?” Bebe asked, worried.

Linley opened his eyes and glanced at the surrounding area. “The battle just now might have drawn the attention of others. Bebe, let’s move ﬁrst and talk later!” Amongst the commanders of the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley could only be considered a low- level one, while Bebe at most would be a mid-level one. The two weren’t yet powerful enough to be able to openly welcome challenges from others!

“Swoosh!” The two transformed into blurs, disappearing from the skies.

Moments after they left, a black-robed ﬁgure suddenly appeared in midair. It paused here for a moment, glanced around, and then left.

In the Planar Battleﬁeld, only high-ranking commanders would dare to ﬂy in the air, as they were conﬁdent in being able to ﬁght any opponent. After all, it was easy for people on the ground to see those of them in midair. For example, Linley and Bebe only moved about on the ground.

After hiding in a deep cave, Linley and Bebe let out sighs of relief.

“Bebe, you weren’t able to catch him?” Linley said with a laugh.

“Nope! That fellow was hidden really far away. Boss, when you spread out your Blackstone Space, he quickly escaped from it. I used my innate divine ability, but I wasn’t able to reach him with it in time.” Bebe said unhappily. “That fellow really is a bastard. He hid so far away when he attacked. He didn’t even

dare to draw too close!”

Linley shook his head. “This is the Planar Battleﬁeld, not a dueling ground. Everyone’s strategies are different! In addition, there are more experts here than just those of the Divine Darkness Plane and Divine Light Plane. Even supreme experts from other planes have decided to come in support of one side. Thus…the experts here are from throughout the Four Higher Realms and the Seven Divine Planes. This is a terrifying battleground. It makes sense for everyone to be so cautious!”

Bebe felt the pressure now, as well.

Aside from the Planar Battleﬁeld, what other place could possibly attract these supreme experts to all gather in one place and think of ways to kill each other? “I wonder how many commanders are here.” Bebe mumbled.

“As I see it, the Divine Darkness Plane and Divine Light Plane each have at most twenty or thirty commanders. The other planes, all combined, should have more! If ten come from each Higher Realm and from each Divine Plane, more than a hundred would be present.” Linley sighed. “In addition, that’s a conservative estimate. Aside from commanders, there are some other experts who previously were Lord Prefects or regional lords who might have retired long ago, but who have only grown in power. They might come as well!”

Bebe nodded.

Indeed…those people came in as ordinary soldiers.

For example, Linley and Bebe. Bebe was here as an ordinary soldier, but in terms of power, was Bebe weak? It was the same principle. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, there were perhaps only a hundred or so true ‘commanders’, but there were more who held commander-level power. Over the course of countless years, quite a few supreme experts had given up their positions, possibly because they knew that they were weaker than their challengers. Some couldn’t be bothered to ﬁght over power, and so gave up their positions. As for others…well, it wasn’t good to underestimate anyone.

“Only very few dare to act arrogantly in the Planar Wars.” Linley shook his head and laughed. Those who were arrogant without sufﬁcient strength died early on. The only people who dared to be arrogant now were the likes of Dunnington. “Thus, that person who attacked me can be considered to have used an excellent method. If the ﬁrst blow was unsuccessful, immediately ﬂee.”

“Too diabolical.” Bebe muttered.

“It is diabolical, but it is also safe.” Linley took a deep breath. “Bebe, as I see it, we should use his method in seeking out targets! We’ll launch sneak attacks…and if we fail, immediately leave without any hesitation.” “Heh heh, it feels bad being ambushed by others, but pretty great ambushing them.” Bebe’s eyes lit up.

Linley laughed resignedly.

Who wanted to be ambushed? But there was nothing they could do. If they fought openly, they would die upon encountering more powerful experts.

“When ambushing, the two of us will work jointly.” Linley had been planning this on the way back. He immediately said, “When we ﬁnd a target, Bebe, use your innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’. I’ll immediately execute a material attack! There are very few people capable of blocking my Mirage sword!”

Linley was very conﬁdent.

Bebe’s ‘Godeater’ ability acted on a person’s soul and divine spark, while Linley used material attacks. “Bebe, against what sort of person would your ‘Godeater’ ability fail?” Linley asked.

He had to know the power of Bebe’s ‘Godeater’ ability in order to plan things out.

“Oh. Grandpa mentioned a few things before. Those who are at the Paragon level should be able to resist my innate divine ability.” Bebe said.

Linley nodded. “Anyone else?”

“Those who have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts should be able to block as well.” Bebe said, then began to laugh. “But don’t worry. Very few people have Sovereign artifacts. Most likely only a portion of commanders have Sovereign artifacts, which are divided into three types. There are very few soul- protecting Sovereign artifacts, and also very few people in possession of them.”

Linley wasn’t too surprised by Bebe’s response.

Soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts were made by Sovereigns to protect their own souls! It was natural that an artifact which a Sovereign used to protect his own soul would be effective against Bebe’s technique.

“Bebe, if the enemy uses Sovereign’s Might, would he be able to block it?” Linley asked. This was the real question which he cared about.

“Heh heh, someone who uses Sovereign’s Might…won’t be able to block me.” Bebe said conﬁdently. “My innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, will go through any possible opening. Unless the soul protection is completely ﬂawless, as soon as it encounters any opening, it will seep through, locking onto the soul and divine spark!”

Linley nodded slightly.

“It seems that it would be hard for me to block this technique as well.” Linley laughed. “Heh heh.” Bebe nodded smugly. “Unless, Boss, you completely repair that soul-protecting Sovereign artifact!”

“Completely repairing it…how difﬁcult a task it is!” Linley laughed in response.

During the course of this conversation, Linley had come to understand how terrifying Bebe’s innate divine ability truly was. Any commander who was not a Paragon or who did not possess a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, upon encountering this technique, would probably ﬁnd it hard to escape! The only method was to do what that violet-robed man had done; immediately pull away.

Once one was attacked within the range of the technique, one would be ﬁnished.

“Amongst the commanders, only a portion of them possess Sovereign artifacts. Even fewer have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts.” Linley was ﬁlled with conﬁdence. “Bebe, just by relying on this technique, should be able to deal with the vast majority of commanders. No wonder Beirut said that by relying on this technique, Bebe’s attack power would be close to Beirut’s own.”

Linley was already ﬁlled with conﬁdence regarding the Planar Battleﬁeld.

After all…it wasn’t just Bebe who had a supreme technique. Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’ and innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, when combined with his godly weapon ‘Mirage’…this was also a very frightening triple threat.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed.

Within the cave.

“Boss, it’s been two more months. We only found a single person, and it was someone on our side. This rate is really low.” Bebe was rather impatient. They wanted to hunt enemy commanders, but they hadn’t even found any targets. They had power stored up but nowhere to spend it.

Linley nodded. “Bebe, there should be enemies on this side of the Stellar River as well. But although they have come over, all of them are extremely careful. Finding them is very hard. As I see it…let’s go straight to their base!”

“Boss, are you saying…?” Bebe’s eyes lit up.

“Pass through the Stellar River and go to the other side!”

The Planar Battleﬁeld didn’t have a sun, a moon, or stars. Upon raising one’s head, all one would see was the multicolored patches of chaotic space high in the skies. Although it was beautiful, it was also very dangerous. The only reason the battleﬁeld had any light at all and wasn’t steeped in utter darkness was because of the chaotic space high up above.

The Stellar River!

It divided the battleﬁeld into two sides, and was one of the danger zones of the Planar Battleﬁeld.

“Boss, so this is the Stellar River? How can you call this a river?” Bebe and Linley were currently standing amidst the grass, staring towards the distant Stellar River.

The Stellar River was extremely long. According to the descriptions on the map, it divided the entire Planar Battleﬁeld in two, and so naturally it was a million kilometers in length. There was no way one would be able to see to the end of it with the naked eye. And its width…

“It must be a thousand kilometers wide.” Linley looked towards it.

The Stellar River was a thousand kilometers wide. At a glance…it seemed incomparably brilliant and beautiful. But upon taking a closer look, they discovered…that the brilliance wasn’t generated from ‘river water’. Rather, it was from countless spatial ﬂows. The Stellar River was ﬁlled with countless spatial tears, which could be seen everywhere.

The spatial tears were so common that they formed into a thick, dense ‘river’, a river completely formed from chaotic spatial tears!

“How are we supposed to go past this damn place?” Bebe said with a frown.

Linley looked carefully as well. The number of spatial tears that appeared and disappeared here were innumerable. But of course, given that it was a thousand kilometers wide, there were some safe zones as well. There were some meteors, mountains, and hills that ﬂoated throughout the Stellar River. They just hovered there. Clearly, the regions in which they resided had no spatial tears.

However, they were in the center of this ‘river’. Linley couldn’t just teleport there. “The Stellar River has two wide corridors!” Linley said. “Only, these two corridors both have army headquarters stationed at each end and are under guard. Our side isn’t so bad; our people guard it and won’t attack us. But if we pass through the wide corridor to reach the other end, we will

suffer enemy attacks!”

The two sides of the Planar Battleﬁeld were actually connected to each other solely through those two corridors.

“Boss, are we really going to…?” Bebe raised an eyebrow.

“Right! All we can do is ﬁnd a safe corridor through the regions of chaotic space and spatial tears.” Linley looked forward carefully as he spoke. “Bebe, some places have no spatial tears. Let’s look carefully for them.”

“No other choices.” Bebe mumbled.

Linley and Bebe both focused their attention on the Stellar River.

Linley quickly discovered that within the Stellar River, there were some places with neither spatial tears nor chaotic space. By connecting these safe spaces…a sinuous pathway could be traversed. What Linley had to do was to ﬁnd a small pathway that would allow him to reach the other side.

“Boss, look over there. It seems that place is passable.” Bebe pointed and said. “However, I can only see to a distance of a few hundred kilometers. It gets blurry after that. The small spatial tears can’t be seen clearly past that distance.”

Linley gave it a look, then shook his head. “Doesn’t work. The path that I found is the same; there’s no way to be certain as to whether or not the latter half is passable. How about this, Bebe…let’s head to those ﬂoating boulders in the center. Once we reach those spaces, we’ll look for a path that reaches the opposite shores.”

“Alright.” Bebe had no options as well. “Then let’s follow that path. It just happens to lead to the millstone-like boulder over there in the center.” Linley immediately decided.

Linley and Bebe, while paying attention to their surroundings, transformed into two rays of light, quickly advancing to the sides of the Stellar Sea. But upon reaching the sides of the Stellar Sea, Linley and Bebe felt pressure from what they were going to do. The ‘river path’ they had selected was ﬁlled with countless spatial tears above and below it, as well as regions of chaotic space.

“Let’s go.” Linley sent.

Linley and Bebe instantly passed through the Stellar River. The two agilely and nimbly threaded their way through, moving up, down, left, and right at high speed, avoiding one dangerous region after another.

At this moment, it was as though Linley and Bebe were dancing atop the blade of a knife. The situation was extremely dangerous.

But at their level, their self-control was at a very high level as well. They didn’t make a single error in any of their movements. Sometimes, they all but pressed against those spatial tears as they moved past them, but they still managed to dodge one danger after another.

“Up ahead.” Linley said, delighted.

Up ahead, there was an enormous ﬂoating boulder that was tens of meters wide. It hovered there, and despite having been there for so long, there were no cracks on it. Clearly, this region didn’t have much danger.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Linley and Bebe advanced, one up ahead, one behind. They landed on the surface of the millstone-like boulder.

“Whew.” Only now did Linley let out a sigh of relief.

He looked at his surroundings. The surrounding area was ﬁlled with spatial tears and chaotic space. Linley couldn’t help but say with a laugh, “Bebe, this…I feel as though we are back in the Yulan continent, in the secret room below Dragonblood Castle. However, that secret room had that membrane which blocked out the spatial tears and the chaotic space. Now, however, we don’t have any protection.”

“Boss…” Bebe suddenly said. “Do you think there might be commanders hidden within the central boulders of the Stellar Sea?”

Chapter 16, Murderous Blows!

In the center of the Stellar River. Atop the giant, millstone- like ﬂoating boulder. Linley and Bebe were standing there.

“If we were to be surrounded and attacked, it would be dangerous.” Bebe looked at their surroundings.

“Hiding around the central boulders of the Stellar River?” Linley couldn’t help but look at the surrounding areas, then laughed. “Bebe, stop imagining things. I think no commander would be willing to battle within the center of the Stellar Sea. If you aren’t careful, you’ll immediately fall into the spatial tears or the chaotic space, and be ﬁnished.”

“Oh. Makes sense.” Bebe couldn’t help but rub his nose and chortle.

“Enough. If we stay here in the center of the Stellar River, we’ll easily be discovered. Let’s hurry up and ﬁnd a way out and arrive at the opposite side in a hurry.” Linley said quickly. “Right.” Bebe also began to immediately inspect the surrounding spatial tears and chaotic space.

If someone from the other side was paying attention to the center of the Stellar River, Linley and Bebe would be easily discovered.

“No, this route doesn’t work either.” Linley shook his head, negating another pathway he had just discovered. Sometimes, a pathway seemed promising, but after a hundred meters, spatial tears and chaotic space completely blocked it off, providing no chances for advancing.

Linley and Bebe continued to search rapidly.

“Boss, I found a path.” Bebe said in surprised delight.

“Oh? Which one?” Linley couldn’t help but feel delighted. “Right over here. Look, follow this line, then there…take a big turn. The route after that is fairly clear.” Bebe said excitedly.

Linley’s gaze quickly swept down and followed the route, all the way to the other end. He wanted to make sure this route was passable.

“Let’s go.” Linley immediately gave the order.

Tarrying too long in the center of the Stellar River would make it easy for those on the other side to ﬁnd them. Generally speaking, the easiest time for others to discover and ambush you would be during the process of travelling from one shore to another.

“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”

Two ﬁgures ﬂashed through the Stellar Sea like bolts of lightning, occasionally curving and occasionally shooting forward, then curving again…in short, constantly dodging past one dangerous region after another.

“Captain, look, over there! Two people.” On the other side of the shore, a group of soldiers had discovered Linley and Bebe, advancing at high speed.

“Just two of them?” The leader, a silver-haired, sharp-eared, callous looking youth looked over, then gave the instructions. “These two deﬁnitely are commanders, or perhaps just one of them is. Let’s immediately move out, while at the same time… Second Bro, you go make the report to the Lord Commander. Should we let them go, or should we attack?”

“Understood.”

A ﬁgure left, ﬂying at high speed.

Linley and Bebe had no idea that there was a camp located right at the part of the shore they had selected as their destination. Unfortunately, the camp was blocked by a small hill, and so Linley and Bebe didn’t discover it at all. Linley and Bebe’s attention was completely focused on the dangerous path they were traversing, and didn’t realize at all that people in the distance were staring at them.

“My brothers, all of you, step back. Don’t ﬁght head on. The few dozen of us present won’t be able to stop them.” The silver- haired, sharp-eared youth instructed. “When the main army arrives or the Lord Commander arrives, then we’ll see.” They were nothing more than a small patrol of the camp, and were more than ten kilometers away from the headquarters.

They were no fools. The few dozen of them, go ﬁght head on against a commander-level expert? That would be suicide.

If there were hundreds or a thousand of them present, then they might be conﬁdent.

“They’ve almost arrived.” The soldiers stared. They had retreated long ago, drawing close to the tall grass close to the hill next to the headquarters.

“The commander orders them to be killed!” The order from the commander came.

“Brothers, let’s go!” The silver-haired, sharp-eared youth immediately shouted. It wasn’t just them, now; a large number of people had arrived from the main camp as well.

“Rumble…”

The soldiers of the camp located in other areas had all come, and they too charged forward, attacking alongside the patrols. There were more than a thousand attacking soldiers.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” Linley and Bebe landed on the shore, moving lightning-fast.

“Boss, there are people here! Many!” Bebe said, stunned. Linley now noticed as well that in the distant grassy area, a large number of ﬁgures had suddenly emerged and were moving towards them at high speed. At the same time, more than ten meters away, in the distance, there was a short tent, with other tents blocked by the hill. “Not good. This is an enemy camp. We need to hurry and leave.” Linley didn’t dare to hesitate, immediately ﬂeeing alongside Bebe.

“Attack!” The order came. There was nothing they could do; in terms of speed, these soldiers couldn’t compete with Linley and Bebe. If this continued, the distance would only grow greater and greater. It was better to immediately attack. With that order, instantly…

“Rumble…”

“BOOM!”

All sorts of rays of light, translucent soul attacks, and other things shot forward at high speed, traversing the kilometers of distance and attacking Linley and Bebe.

But Linley and Bebe ﬂed very quickly as well.

“Bang!” “Bang!” The various attacks rained down, covering Linley and Bebe.

Multiple attacks landed on Linley and Bebe’s bodies.

Within the exploding sounds, Linley and Bebe continued to ﬂee quickly, soon disappearing from the ﬁeld of vision of the pursuing soldiers.

“Commander!” The thousand soldiers suddenly all turned and bowed towards a single person.

This person was a man with long golden hair as brilliant as the sun, a face that was as white and pure as a woman’s, and who was dressed in a long golden robe. He casually glanced at them. “You let them escape?”

“We didn’t catch up to them.” The military ofﬁcer who gave the order to attack said.

“If you didn’t catch up to them, then forget it. We were already quite lucky to even encounter them, given the close distance to the Stellar Sea and how fast commanders move. If we were able to so easily kill one or two commanders, then my luck would have been too great. Enough, let’s return!” The golden-haired commander laughed calmly as he gave his orders.

In a patch of grass, Linley and Bebe were hiding.

“What bad luck.” Bebe twisted his lips. “Boss, you alright?”

“I’m ﬁne. Just four material attacks landed on me, along with one soul attack. There wasn’t much of an impact.” Linley felt they were unlucky as well. The Stellar River was a million kilometers long. They had randomly chosen a place to come over, but who would have imagined that the opposite side would have a camp?

Linley then laughed. “Still, we at least made it safely to the enemy side.”

“Right.” Bebe’s eyes lit up. “Boss, are we going to search for our target now?” “Let’s start to set up camp. I imagine on this side, things will be much better than at our side.”

Linley and Bebe set up the same camping strategy they had on the other side. They dug a fairly shallow hole into the ground, then calmly began to train in the hole. At the same time, they each controlled a Deathgod Golem, which began to sneak around, with the goal of attracting nearby commanders.

A muscular man dressed in short sleeves and long trousers who was three meters tall was currently stealthily moving forward. He had a head of golden, lion-like hair, an upwards hooked nose, and a large mouth. His golden eyes paid constant attention to the surrounding areas, searching for a target.

“Oh?”

The golden-haired man’s eyes lit up. He saw that in the distance, there was a ﬁgure that was stealthily advancing. He couldn’t help but let a huge smile appear on his face. “I didn’t expect I’d actually encounter one. Right. No badge aura. An enemy!” The golden-haired man immediately shot forward as though he were a bolt of lightning.

Right at this moment, that ﬁgure just so happened to turn, spying the golden-haired man charging at him.

“Swoosh!” Not hesitating at all, the ﬁgure immediately ﬂed.

“Fleeing? But your speed is inferior to mine!” The golden- haired man’s eyes lit up.

In the underground cave, Linley and Bebe were quietly seated in the meditative posture.

“Boss, we have a target. He’s chasing after the Deathgod Golem I am controlling.” Bebe suddenly opened his eyes.

Linley, excited, opened his eyes as well. “The encounter rate is much higher on the enemy side. This is only the seventh day, but we’ve found someone.” “Let’s hurry up and move out.”

Linley and Bebe didn’t hesitate at all, immediately moving out from underground. If the enemy discovered the ‘target’ was just a Deathgod Golem, he would deﬁnitely know that it was just bait, making the chances of their ambush being successful much lower.

Linley and Bebe had been controlling the Deathgod Golems at a close distance. Because they were keeping them close, that made it easier to control them, and it was currently ﬂeeing towards the two of them.

Within the grass.

Linley and Bebe laid there in wait, staring at the two distant, running ﬁgures. The Deathgod Golem was a Highgod artifact level Deathgod Golem, and it was still quite fast. However, normally speaking, a commander level expert should be far faster than this Deathgod Golem. “This golden-haired fellow isn’t that fast.” Linley immediately came to this judgment.

“Boss, I don’t sense any aura from his badge. He should be an enemy.” Bebe said, delighted.

Linley’s eyes lit up as well.

Good heavens! They had lain in wait for half a year on their own side without anything to show for it, but after having waited here for just seven days, they had encountered an enemy. The efﬁciency rate here really was much higher.

“Bebe, prepare to act.” Linley sent mentally.

“Don’t worry, Boss.” Bebe grew excited as well.

Linley and Bebe just watched as the golden-haired man continued to chase after the Deathgod Golem. Finally…the golden-haired man caught up to it. The muscular man, his head wreathed in large amounts of golden hair, let out a large howl as he swept forward with his right palm. With that blow, space itself rippled as though spacetime was water.

“So powerful.” The faces of Linley and Bebe changed. The stability of the Planar Battleﬁeld was far greater than even the Higher Planes.

The Deathgod Golem struck back as well. Their ﬁsts met!

“BANG!”

The Deathgod Golem’s right arm immediately transformed into shattered pieces, while the entire body then began to tremble before immediately collapsing.

This scene badly startled Linley and Bebe. To break through a Highgod artifact sword with a punch wasn’t frightening; however, when this golden-haired man had broken the Deathgod Golem’s arm, then somehow caused a powerful vibration that made the entire Deathgod Golem collapse. This sort of attack was simply too awe-inspiring.

“Eh?” The golden-haired man stared. There was no divine spark on the ground, nor any badge.

“Not good!” The golden-haired man suddenly raised his head.

HE saw that a hundred meters away, an enormous Godeater Rat phantom had suddenly appered in midair. A youth was staring at him coldly. “Rumble…” A strange ripple instantly spread out. The golden-haired man wasn’t able to dodge at all, and was immediately struck by it. A strange energy pressed down on his mind…

Innate divine ability – Godeater!

“Rumble…” An earthen yellow light instantly vibrated outwards, pressing down on the golden-haired man.

“Swish!” An azure-golden blur shot forward as well.

Based on Linley and Bebe’s plans, regardless of whether or not Bebe’s technique succeeded, Linley would still use his most powerful sword attack in that moment. Someone capable of blocking ‘Godeater’ wouldn’t necessarily be able to block Linley’s sword.

“Raaaaaaaaawr!” The golden-haired man let out an angry roar.

“He’s actually still alive.” Bebe couldn’t help but curse to himself. The enemy was either a Highgod Paragon or possessed a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. The enemy camp they had encountered when they had just arrived had been a thorny problem, and now here came another one. What horrible luck.

“Swish…”

The invisible godspark sword, Mirage, shot out…Firmament Splitter! This most powerful technique was executed through the invisible ‘Mirage’ sword, and the sword pierced straight towards the man’s forehead.

“Bastard!” The golden-haired man sensed the sharp aura and hurriedly moved his head aside to dodge.

“Slash!”

Mirage stabbed directly into the right side of the golden- haired man’s face, but as it stabbed down, with a ‘crackle’ sound, Mirage just barely managed to cut through the golden- haired man’s face, and it was unable to go any further.

“What sort of defense is this!” Linley was stupeﬁed.

Aside from Bebe and Beirut, Linley had never before encountered such powerful, terrifying defense. Most likely, even Patriarch Gislason of the Azure Dragon clan was far inferior. His most powerful sword attack was aimed at the enemy’s face, not the enemy’s ﬁst. He had only been able to cut slightly into the skin of the face. This was too ridiculous.

“Die!” The golden-haired man let out a bellow, smashing out at Linley with an angry ﬁst.

Linley, terriﬁed, retreated with explosive speed.

That attack just now had been launched from just half a meter away from Linley. However, just as Linley thought he had dodged it, a golden yellow light suddenly shot out from the golden-haired man’s ﬁst. As it shot out, it actually caused space itself to tremble.

There was no way to dodge!

“BOOM!”

The golden light struck Linley on his chest, and with a ‘boom’ sound, it shot straight through Linley’s chest, creating a large, ﬁst-sized hole within it.

Chapter 17, Hemmers

“His material attack is actually this powerful!” Linley felt stunned in his heart. “Even the former Redcliff Lord’s material attack wasn’t as monstrous as this. An attack passing through empty space is actually able to penetrate my body.” Linley was very conﬁdent in the defense of his Dragonform, but today, this punch had stunned him!

That man’s eyes were ﬁlled with rage, and his messy golden hair began to tremble.

“You dare to injure me, Hemmers? Die!” A deep voice echoed in Linley’s mind, and the golden-haired man’s right leg lashed out…

That thick right leg was ﬂowing with a golden yellow light. As it lashed out, it created ripples in space, as though it were moving through water. The power of this kick was so great that even before it reached Linley, Linley already had a bad feeling. “Given the power of that ﬁst, which didn’t even directly hit me, just passed through the air…if I’m hit by this kick…” Linley didn’t dare to hesitate.

“Blackstone Space – Repulsive Force!” Linley willed it, and a powerful repulsive force was applied to the terrifyingly powerful body of that ‘Hemmers’.

At the same time, with a ‘whap!’ sound, Linley’s whip-like draconic tail slapped the ground hard, borrowing the counterforce to retreat hurriedly!

“Bang!” This kick of Hemmers missed.

“BOOM!” Although it missed, a surge of golden ripples still shot out from his leg, shooting towards Linley. This material attack was simply too fast! It wasn’t bound by the Blackstone Space, and its speed vastly outstripped Linley’s ﬂeeing speed. However, live and learn; after having suffered last time, Linley was prepared this time. Linley’s godspark sword, ‘Mirage’, unhurriedly swung out to meet it.

It seemed to move slowly but was actually fast. The ﬂat of Mirage struck directly against the golden yellow ripple.

“BANG!” A powerful collision. Mirage was knocked backwards, slapping against Linley’s body, while Linley’s sword-wielding right arm actually had its draconic scales shatter and blood leak through.

“Swoosh!”

Linley once more borrowed the counterforce to retreat.

“What a monster!” Linley cursed in his heart. “The power of kick, when passing through a godspark weapon, is capable of shattering my draconic scales. So in the planes of the universe, there is someone besides Beirut who is so monstrous!” Previously, Linley had seen Beirut use his bare hands to stop a Sovereign artifact.

One could imagine how much strength that took. But it seemed as though this golden-haired man was about the same.

The distant Bebe’s eyes instantly grew wide and round. Not hesitating at all, he transformed into a blur, shooting towards the golden-haired warrior while sending mentally in a frantic voice, “Boss, hurry and ﬂee, I’ll block him!”

“Bebe, don’t waste time, let’s hurry up and leave! You won’t be able to block him.” Linley hurriedly sent back.

At the same time, Linley increased his ﬂeeing speed. Bebe had no choice but to follow Linley in ﬂeeing.

“You want to escape?!”

The golden-haired man stared furiously at the two ﬂeeing ﬁgures, then violently stomped forward. “BANG!” “BANG!” Every single step was like a meteor striking the ground, and the golden-haired man’s speed thus reached his limit as he pursued and attacked towards the ﬂeeing Linley and Bebe.

“Boss, that big fellow is in pursuit!” Bebe called out in alarm.

“He’s actually this fast.” Linley glanced backwards. Originally, when the golden-haired man had been in pursuit of the Deathgod Golem, he hadn’t been this fast. Clearly…this person called ‘Hemmers’ was utterly enraged now.

“It’s ﬁne. Once he enters my Blackstone Space, he won’t be able to catch up to us.” Linley said with certainty.

Indeed!

As soon as the golden-haired man entered the ‘Blackstone Space’ region, he sensed a powerful repulsive force. Speed was never his forte to begin with, and although when going all out, he could compare to Linley and Bebe, as soon as he entered the Blackstone Space region, he became vastly inferior to Linley and Bebe.

Linley and Bebe were ﬂeeing in front, hurriedly pulling away.

This caused the golden-haired man to once more escape the ‘Blackstone Space’, and as soon as he did, his speed increased again, allowing him to close in on them once more.

In short…the two sides maintained a distance of roughly ﬁve hundred meters.

“Boss, that big fellow keeps chasing us. What should we do?” Bebe said frantically. “Can it be that we will have to use Sovereign’s Might?”

“Not for now.”

Linley didn’t want to waste a drop of Sovereign’s Might. The situation wasn’t critical yet. “Bebe, within a few hundred meters, this Hemmers is able to clearly see us. How about this. We will immediately enter the ground and tunnel downwards. He won’t be able to see us, and will probably ﬁnd it hard to ﬁnd us.” Linley sent mentally. Unless the situation was life-threatening, Linley wouldn’t

easily use up his Sovereign’s Might.

“Enter the ground? Fine.” Bebe agreed.

“The two of you, don’t even think of escaping!” The angry bellows continued to echo and shake the world.

“This big idiot. Isn’t he afraid of attracting attention, by bellowing like this?” Bebe couldn’t help but sent angrily.

“Bebe, I imagine this Hemmers really isn’t afraid of others coming. He didn’t even fear your ‘Godeater’ ability. He should have a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. And look at his material defense! This is absolutely an opponent who has no weaknesses. His only weakness, actually, is that he has no long distance attacks and no soul attacks. Enough, let’s go underground!” Linley and Bebe, in virtually the same instant, with a ‘swoosh’ dove underground.

“Hmph, ﬂeeing underground?” The yellow-haired man let out a cold laugh.

And then…

The yellow-haired man lifted up his thick leg, viciously stamping on the ground. With a thunderous sound, the ground trembled and a ray of golden light rippled out from his leg and entered the ground, spreading outwards in every direction.

“Over there!” The burly golden-haired man’s eyes lit up.

He moved towards the left in hot pursuit, then lifted his feet up once again and viciously stomped on the ground. That golden light once more entered the ground and rippled out. Although by ﬂeeing underground, one couldn’t be seen, in terms of ﬂeeing speed, the blocking dirt naturally made it slower than ﬂeeing aboveground.

“What sort of weird technique is this?” Bebe could clearly sense how the golden energy ripples were like ripples of water, with each ripple landing on himself and Linley. However, the energy of these ripples didn’t possess much power to harm.

“BANG!”

A violent tremor came from above.

“This fellow knows where we are.” Linley said frantically. “There’s no way to escape his pursuit from underground.”

“Boss, what should we do?” Bebe said frantically.

“There’s one ﬁnal option! If this method doesn’t work, then we’ll just have to use up our Sovereign’s Might.” Right at this moment, a powerful golden ripple shot downwards, charging straight through the obstructing dirt.

“Not good.” Linley’s face changed.

“BANG!” Bebe viciously threw a punch straight towards it.

“Bebe, are you alright?” Linley was rather nervous.

“I’m ﬁne. This attack was pretty strong though; my ﬁst feels numb. But I’m not injured.” Bebe sent back. Linley, hearing this, let out a sigh of relief, and then a sigh of praise; Bebe’s defense really was terrifying, comparable to or exceeding the hardness of a godspark weapon.

Bebe, upon reaching the Highgod level, had only been injured by the Abyssal Fruit Tree Sovereign. Others weren’t even able to scratch Bebe’s skin. Unfortunately, Bebe’s attack power was too weak, inferior to even Linley’s. It was only because of his innate divine ability that he was able to threaten commander-level experts.

“Bebe…let’s go aboveground together!” Linley said hurriedly.

That expert named Hemmers clearly had a method to determine where they were. If they were underground, they would be moving slowly and would be beaten around like punching bags. Linley and Bebe immediately transformed into rays of light, quickly emerging from underground.

“Haha, you ﬁnally came out.”

Loud laughter rang out, and the golden-haired man drew closer.

“So close!” Upon leaving the ground, Linley and Bebe discovered that this golden haired man was less than a hundred meters away now. Linley was so startled, he immediately set up his Blackstone Space, once more repulsing the golden-haired man. By relying on his speed, he was once more able to pull away.

“Bastard! This damn thing again. Just like Reisgem…how damn annoying!” The golden-haired man howled furiously.

He was currently ﬁlled with rage.

In the Blackstone Space, he wasn’t able to draw near Linley at all.

Right at this moment…

“Eh?” The golden-haired man stared.

Linley, while running at full speed, suddenly turned to stare at him. At the same time, an enormous, sinuous, coiled illusion of an Azure Dragon suddenly appeared behind Linley. The Azure Dragon Phantom’s golden eyes were staring coldly at the muscular ‘Hemmers’, while at the same time, the sound of a dragon’s roar began to ring out in Hemmers’ mind.

Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar!

Time drastically slowed down in the region Hemmers’ soul was in.

“Uh…” Hemmers was stunned. Within his ﬁeld of vision, he watched as Linley and Bebe seemed to suddenly move tens of time faster, and with a ‘swish’ disappeared from his ﬁeld of vision. But of course, it wasn’t that Linley and Bebe actually moved faster; it was that Hemmers himself had slowed down by tens of times.

The effect of the Dragon Roar had ﬁnally brought an end to this pursuit.

“Dragon Roar? The Dragon Roar of the Azure Dragon clan? What terrible luck.” Hemmers rubbed his big nose. “Still, I really am too slow. Given the repulsive force of the Gravitational Space of that kid of the Azure Dragon clan, even if I used Sovereign’s Might, I would only be able to barely maintain parity with him while under the effects of that repulsive force.”

Hemmers couldn’t help but shake his head.

In pure ﬂeeing speed, Linley and Hemmers were roughly the same, and when going all out, Hemmers actually held the advantage.

But by relying on the Blackstone Space, Linley made it so that even if Hemmers used Sovereign’s Might, the two would still roughly be on par.

“Still, speed was never my forte. There’s nothing I can do!” Hemmers shook his head. “The best thing for me to do is to beg a Sovereign to create a long-distance Sovereign weapon for me. For example, something like a javelin…and by then, given my attack power, who would be able to block it? This is my third time participating in the Planar Wars. Altogether, I’m still missing three commander badges…I have to work hard and see, after the conclusion of this Planar War, if I’ll be able to come up with enough military merits.” Hemmers shook his head, leaving with large strides.

“HEY!” Hemmers shouted towards the distance while leaving. “You people, stop watching over there! If you have the ability to do so, come closer to me!”

“Hemmers, looks like you failed again, haha…”

A loud laugh rang out from afar, and then the laughter faded away.

“A group of cowards.” Hemmers snorted, then left.

In the distance, three people were together. Two male youths, along with a violet-haired, violet-robed girl. The violet- robed girl laughed softly. “Hey, did the two of you see that? There was someone who was so foolish and hotheaded as to go offend that fellow Hemmers. Don’t they know…that Hemmers is one of the top-ranked experts of the entire Divine Earth Plane?” “Most likely, those two aren’t familiar with the various commanders yet.” One of the three, a black-horned, silver- haired youth, laughed calmly.

“But those two aren’t weak either; they were able to battle Hemmers without dying. Unfortunately, we came too late and weren’t able to ﬁnd out where the two ran off to.” The other male youth of the three, a person with dazzling golden hair and strange silver-white eyes, said. “Let’s go. Let’s leave this place. If Hemmers makes trouble for us, that will be a pain in the neck.”

The three immediately slipped away.

Amidst the grass, Linley and Bebe were lying down and resting.

“Boss, where did that freak come from? Your full-force sword blow was only able to barely pierce his skin. And his punches! They went straight through your body.” Bebe sent mentally. “And that’s because my body is very strong.” Linley said with a self-mocking laugh. “Bebe, you don’t know this, but when that punch pierced through my chest, a strange, rippling power seemed to shake my entire body. Fortunately…my Dragonformed body is far tougher than a Deathgod Golem. Otherwise, I would have ended up the same way, just like the Deathgod Golem; my entire body would have collapsed.”

When Linley had seen that, he had felt shocked.

“Alas. Boss, although there are quite a few commanders we can deal with here in the Planar Wars, there’s also a good number we can’t. We weren’t so bad off this time; this one was weak in speed. But if next time, we really slam into a metal wall, that would be terrible.” Bebe said with a frown.

Chapter 18, List of Names

“If we really slam into a metal wall?” Linley was rather worried now as well.

Amongst commanders, there were indeed a number of ﬁgures who could be described as being ‘invincible’. If they ran into such a ﬁgure, he and Bebe would be in true danger. This universe was capable of giving birth to a terrifying divine beast such as the Godeater Rat, as well as a divine beast capable of altering time such as the Azure Dragon. It could also give birth to other terrifying divine beasts. Beirut was only reputed to be the number one ﬁgure beneath the Bloodridge Sovereign. There were most likely some people who were comparable to him.

Linley didn’t dare to underestimate any commander.

“Forget it. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, for commanders to slaughter each other is what happens anyhow.” Bebe mumbled. “It comes down to luck, I suppose.” “We are at a major disadvantage.” Linley shook his head. “The commanders who have come to participate in the Planar Wars are all very familiar with the other commanders. We know too little…this will cause us to blindly attack enemies. For example, that Hemmers. If we knew who he was in advance, we could’ve just let him pass and not anger him.”

Linley was resigned.

After all, he had just barely reached the ‘Asura’ level.

“We are indeed at a disadvantage. We know too few people.” Bebe said helplessly.

Linley’s eyes suddenly lit up.

Linley slapped himself on the head, hard, then laughed at himself. “Bebe, look at me. My mind’s gone muddled. You and I don’t know them, but can’t we ask others?” “Eh?” Bebe was startled.

“My divine ﬁre clone is at the Yulan continent. I can go ask your Grandpa Beirut.” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

Bebe instantly began to laugh as well. “Right. Grandpa deﬁnitely knows a great deal. Why didn’t I think of this?”

After having come to the Planar Wars, Linley and Bebe had completely focused on the dangerous, warlike environment. They had only been thinking of hunting and killing other commanders and so hadn’t thought about other things.

“Bebe, let’s not go out for now. First, let me get a clear picture of the various commanders of the other planes, and get a sense of who is hard to deal with, who is easy to deal with. Then we’ll make our choices.” Linley laughed. Bebe nodded as well. They did indeed have plenty of time, and weren’t in a rush.

The Yulan Plane. The Forest of Darkness.

“Whoooosh.” The world was bathed in white. Drifting plumes of snow fell down from the skies, while a ﬁery blur was currently passing through the air above the Forest of Darkness at high speed. At this moment, a ﬁery, red robed Linley with ﬁery red hair was ﬂying at high speed towards Beirut’s metallic castle. This metallic castle was very familiar with Linley, and didn’t bar his way at all. As Linley landed, he directly entered into the metallic castle.

Within the front courtyard of the metallic castle.

A black-robed Beirut was standing there, holding a book and seated beneath a great tree formed from the metallic lifeform. The thick leaves completely blocked out the falling snow.

“Lord Beirut.” Linley bowed respectfully.

Beirut turned and laughed calmly while giving him a glance. “Oh, Linley, is there something you need? Did you encounter some difﬁculties in the Planar Battleﬁeld?” After speaking, Beirut once more lowered his head to ﬂip through the book in his hands.

“Lord Beirut, Bebe and I are doing pretty poorly in the Planar Battleﬁeld. We found a target, but who would have imagined… the target was so powerful that even Bebe and I combined weren’t a match for him. Fortunately, speed was not one of his strengths, nor was he skilled at long distance attacks, so we managed to escape with our lives.” Linley said ashamedly.

Beirut, surprised, closed his book.

“You and Bebe combined weren’t a match for him?” Beirut asked. “The two of you against one person; one uses an innate divine ability against the soul and divine spark, while the other uses a material attack. You two complement each other very well…there aren’t many commanders who can block that.”

“His name is Hemmers.” Linley reported the name.

“Him?” Beirut couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Haha…you two really are fearless. You even dare go irritate that big, boorish fellow! Others run as fast as they can when they see him. The material attack of ‘Hemmers’ can be ranked in the top ten of the entire universe. Even your Patriarch, Gislason, can’t withstand a punch from Hemmers.”

“I only learned that afterwards.” Linley said, laughing bitterly.

“Lord Beirut, how can Hemmers’ punches be so powerful?” Linley was completely confused. “I, too, train in the Laws of the Earth, and saw the attacks of the Redcliff Lord. But I don’t understand why Hemmers’ punches and kicks could be so…” Linley shook his head, indicating his confusion.

The previous Redcliff Lord was skilled in material attacks as well, and he had fused ﬁve profound mysteries. His power was extremely great. When Linley and him had exchanged punches, Linley had been slightly inferior. “That’s his innate gift!” Beirut began to chortle.

“Innate gift?” Linley was startled.

“Do you know how many profound mysteries he has fused?” Beirut laughed.

“No idea.” Linley shook his head. “Is it high, or is it low?”

“He has fused four.” Beirut laughed calmly. “This is something I heard from the Sovereign when I was by his side.”

Linley was stunned. Fusing four profound mysteries put him at the Seven Star Fiend level, but the power which Hemmers had displayed was terrifyingly strong.

If one could be so breathtakingly strong after having fused just four profound mysteries, the strength of his innate gifts could be easily imagined! “This Hemmers was born and blessed with incomparably great strength, and his defense is tremendous as well! According to legend…when the Divine Earth Plane was ﬁrst created, a small golden mountain was formed. After countless years of nurturing, it eventually transformed into a living creature. Hemmers.” Beirut laughed. “Do you know? As soon as he transformed upon reaching the Demigod level, he became a Sovereign’s Emissary and was given a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.”

“Uh…” Linley was speechless.

A Sovereign’s Emissary as a Demigod?

“His body is indestructible. Given that he also has a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact…to kill him is virtually impossible. Because his body was formed from that unique golden mountain that was formed alongside the plane itself, his power was extremely great from birth. Even without using any profound mysteries, a punch from him can shatter space. Now that he has fused four profound mysteries, there aren’t many people who can take a punch from him.” Beirut said in praise. Linley couldn’t help but feel speechless. Some innate divine abilities really were ridiculous.

“I, a Godeater Rat, reﬁne divine sparks to strengthen my body. But Hemmers was born with such a powerful body.” Beirut laughed calmly. “However, purely in terms of physical toughness, Hemmers is still slightly inferior to us Godeater Rats.”

Linley understood this as well. The bodies of Godeater Rats were comparable to divine sparks, after all.

“Lord Beirut, we were at a huge disadvantage this time! Thus, I want to ask you, Lord Beirut, if you can give me some information regarding the Asura-level experts of the various major planes. Let me get an understanding of them. That way, we won’t rashly compete against some truly supreme experts again.” Linley said hurriedly.

Beirut nodded slightly. “I guessed that you would come ﬁnd me.” Beirut waved his hand, and a bluish-copper colored chest suddenly appeared in front of him. “This chest has a great deal of information within it, as well as scryer recordings. Take a close look and get a good understanding of the various supreme experts of the various planes.”

Linley couldn’t help but look excitedly towards the bluish- copper chest.

With this thing, he would be prepared to deal with the enemies.

“Read it here. If there are any questions, you can ask me.” Beirut laughed calmly.

“Thank you, Lord Beirut.” Linley immediately went over and opened the chest.

Inside were a large number of scryer recordings, as well as thick realms of documents. Linley immediately moved the chest to one side and then began to read carefully, right there in the courtyard.

“Magnus [Ma’ge’nu’si], Celestial Realm. A supreme expert who ranks in the top ﬁve. Trains in the Edicts of Fate. Seems to be a Highgod Paragon…” Linley began to truly read in earnest. The information regarding one supreme expert after another entered Linley’s mind, and Linley now truly began to understand…

So each of the eleven great planes had such a high number of experts hidden in reclusion.

It must be understood that the seven Laws and four Edicts alone had a total of seventy seven Sovereigns. How could the number of supreme Highgod experts be lacking?

In but a single day’s time, Linley ﬁnished reading all of the materials and viewed all of the scryer recordings.

Linley now truly had the feeling…that there were so many experts in the universe!

“The eleven great planes…it seems as though there are less than thirty Highgod Paragons.” Linley was secretly amazed. “In other words, each plane has, on average, just two or three Highgod Paragons. And these are only those who are suspected to be Paragons! As for the Sovereigns, the eleven planes each have seven Sovereigns.” Linley ﬁnally realized how truly rare Highgod Paragons were!

As for commander-level experts? There were far more!

For example, in the Infernal Realm, there were 108 Lord Prefects and 108 Purgatory Commanders! The Infernal Realm alone held 216 commander-level experts, and that didn’t include many retired experts or supreme experts who never formally held the title of Lord Prefect. It was truly hard to calculate how many had retired, in fact.

The Infernal Realm alone had hundreds, perhaps nearly a thousand experts who were at the commander-level of power. And the other three Higher Realms and the other Seven Divine Planes?

“There really are so many!” Linley said to himself in amazement. “Only, the vast majority of them won’t participate in the battles at all.”

This was because the eleven great planes had existed for too long. When Linley had been with the Azure Dragon clan and encountered some of the Elders of the clan, he realized that these Elders had lived for unknowably long periods of time already. From this, one could imagine…how long the histories of the various planes were.

It made sense that after countless years, many experts had arisen.

“Thud.” Linley shut the chest.

At this time, Beirut walked over from the courtyard. With a calm laugh, he said, “Oh, done reading?” “Yes.” Linley took a deep breath.

This list of names of powerful experts allowed Linley to truly understand the concept of ‘a heaven beyond heaven’. Although he had just barely crossed the threshold of an ‘Asura’, there were many Asura-level experts, after all. The Infernal Realm alone had 216, not even counting the retired or hidden experts.

“After learning these things, don’t be overconﬁdent in the future.” Beirut said with a calm laugh. “The Planar Battleﬁeld is a place of life and death! Thus, commanders who aren’t very conﬁdent generally won’t show their real faces to people.”

“Won’t show their real faces?” Linley was stunned. “Then isn’t it pointless for me to read these things?”

After having viewed the materials and scryer recordings, Linley learned what these people looked like and what their supreme techniques were. But if they changed their appearances, how would he tell them apart? “Don’t worry too much. It is only the weak who change their appearances. As for the experts who are truly, completely conﬁdent in themselves, they can’t be bothered to change their appearances, because they fear no one.” Beirut said.

Linley couldn’t help but nod.

It was hard to judge superiority or inferiority amongst the truly high-level, supreme experts amongst the Asuras. For example, some Highgod Paragons could only be said to be in the top three or the top ﬁve of a particular plane; there was no way of saying if he was deﬁnitely the best. After all, after training to the very peak…even if there were slight differences in power, it would be hard for one of them to kill the other.

“Lord Beirut, in other words, as long as I encounter someone I don’t recognize, I should attack.” Linley laughed.

“Right.” Beirut laughed as well.

“Actually, the Planar Wars are very pointless.” Beirut suddenly shook his head. “It’s simply a charnel house meant for reducing the number of supreme experts…but of course, it will also give birth to a few supreme experts.”

“Eh?” Linley was startled.

Charnel house?

“Lord Beirut, what are you saying?” Linley couldn’t help but speak out.

Beirut said with a calm laugh, “There are too many people and too many experts in the various planes! In addition, these planes have existed for countless years. Their long existences have resulted in countless experts! The Planar Wars are a tool meant to be used to reduce the number of experts. Every trillion years, every plane will undergo a Planar Wars, thus reducing the number of experts.”

“A single Planar War will continue for a thousand years! In the course of those thousand years, it is virtually only the commanders who will ﬁght against and slaughter each other, while those who don’t wish to battle hide in their camps! At the very end of the Planar War, the armies of both sides will ﬁght each other at the ‘bridges’ through the Stellar Sea and engage in a wild slaughter!” Beirut said with a chuckle. “To the vast majority of people, this is suicide. But to a few people, this is an excellent opportunity.”

Chapter 19, An Untended Willow Grows

Linley now understood!

When he originally entered the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley had discovered that many army camps were situated at each side of the Stellar River, and yet there were no signs of activity. Linley didn’t understand why. Only now did he understand…that at the ﬁnal part, the two armies would begin to kill each other.

“That’s too vicious. It’s tantamount to suicide.” Linley couldn’t help but say.

“Although it is vicious and cruel, it’s also a good chance to earn military merits.” Beirut said with a calm laugh. “In that sort of chaotic battle between two great armies, even commanders might die. And if one is lucky, one might be able to instantly acquire a large number of soldier badges and even commander badges! That is the time when the rewards are greatest, but yes, also when the danger is greatest.”

In Linley’s mind instantly ﬂoated an image of countless Highgods launching attacks against each other, with commanders amongst them.

Indeed, that was a terrifying scene.

“It’d be best for you to acquire enough commander badges prior to this event.” Beirut laughed calmly.

Linley nodded. When the two armies battled chaotically, that was indeed a time of great reward, but also a time of tremendous danger.

“If, within a thousand years, I don’t collect enough commander badges, then I’ll have to go participate in the mass battle.” Linley said to himself silently. For the sake of his family and friends, Linley wouldn’t cower.

The Planar Battleﬁeld, within a fairly black mountain. Linley and Bebe were together. This sort of lifeless black mountain could be seen everywhere throughout the Planar Battleﬁeld. “Crunch.” Bebe was eating some fruit.

Linley, seated in the meditative posture, suddenly opened his eyes.

“Hey, Boss? Did you get the news from my grandfather?” Bebe’s eyes immediately lit up. Linley smiled and nodded. “Right. I now have an understanding of most of the commander-level experts of the various planes. From today onwards…how about this. I’ll control the Deathgod Golem by myself to draw in commanders.”

They had enough time. Linley was in no rush.

“Right.” Bebe chortled, then nodded. “Alright. I was wanting to take more naps anyhow. When you ﬁnd a target, Boss, call me.” Bebe, even in the Planar Battleﬁeld, always was in the mood for napping.”

“More than eight hundred, close to nine hundred, years are left before this Planar War concludes. We need to put this long period of time to good use. Perhaps during this period of time, I’ll fuse my fourth profound mystery of the Laws of the Earth.” Linley said with a sigh.

“Eh? Four? Right, Boss, didn’t you already combine the Throbbing Pulse of the World, the Profound Mysteries of Strength, the Essence of the Earth, and Gravitational Space? Finishing the fusion should be fairly quick.” Bebe mumbled.

“I’ve combined them, but what I now need to do is to separately fuse the Profound Mysteries of Strength with the Essence of the Earth and Gravitational Space as well. Only after I complete this will all four have been completely fused. Most likely, in another century or so, the separate fusions will be ﬁnished.” Linley said with a calm laugh. Actually, Linley had already improved signiﬁcantly in the past sixty or seventy years he had spent here in the Netherworld.

After all, once the fusion had started, fusing up to the bottleneck was just a matter of time.

“Hey, Boss, once you fuse four profound mysteries, your attack power will rise greatly once again.” Bebe said excitedly.

“Actually, I already have a direction in my mind.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

After having seen the attacks of the previous Redcliff Lord and of Hemmers, Linley had already gained some insights.

Bebe either napped or trained; in short, he was always just waiting. Linley’s divine clones focused on their training, while his original body controlled the Deathgod Golem outside. Time ﬂowed on…and in the blink of an eye, two more months passed.

“It’s only been one month, but I’ve lost a Deathgod Golem already.” Linley shook his head helplessly as he spoke. “Half a year ago, when I saw that supreme expert of the Divine Light Realm, I wanted to control my Deathgod Golem to make it ﬂee, but that person pursued and attacked, forcibly destroying my Deathgod Golem as well as the surrounding area. Fortunately, I hid deep enough…and his divine sense didn’t extend all the way down to me.” Bebe opened his eyes and laughed, “It is just a Deathgod Golem. It is cheap. It’s nothing.”

“If I knew, I would’ve brought some more here with me.” Linley said.

At this moment, Linley was controlling another Deathgod Golem, patrolling outside.

“In two months, we haven’t seen a single suitable opponent.” Bebe let out a sigh.

“Don’t sigh. If we hadn’t gone to your Grandpa Beirut and found out some information, most likely against that previous person, we would’ve gone to go ﬁght against that supreme expert of Light. Fortunately, we avoided that disaster.” Linley laughed. Just as Linley and Bebe were sighing, suddenly…

“BOOM!” The entire mountain trembled violently, and quite a few rocks smashed down atop Linley and Bebe.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” Bebe said with a frown.

“Wait a moment. The Deathgod Golem that I’m controlling is thousands of meters away…oh, the Deathgod Golem sees it. Two experts are battling!” Linley said, surprised.

Next to the mountain where Linley and Bebe were residing, there were two ﬁgures clashing. One was a violet blur, while the other was a white blur. One violet saber ﬂash after another ﬂew out of the body of the violet blur, with one of them landing viciously against the nearby small mountain.

“BANG!”

An explosive collision. The two were both knocked ﬂying back by the collision. The violet blur was actually a green-eyed, violet-robed, vicious-looking youth, while the white blur was a handsome, silver-haired, blue-pupiled youth. The silver-haired youth’s face was ﬁlled with rage.

“Lancelot [Lang’si’luo]! Don’t go too far! You and I are on the same side. Why must you insist on killing me?” The silver- haired youth roared.

“Hmph, so what if we are on the same side? You should have been prepared for death the moment you entered the Planar Battleﬁeld.” The violet-robed youth let out a cold laugh. He said nothing else, immediately beginning to ﬁll the surrounding area with violet bolts of electricity, and it seemed as though lightning bolts were beginning to ﬁll the skies as well.

The silver-haired youth’s face changed.

In terms of speed, he couldn’t compete with the lightning- element Lancelot. He wouldn’t be able to ﬂee! Battle was the only option!

He knew that he was weaker, but all he could do was ﬁght it head on. With a low growl, he said, “Lancelot, if you don’t give me any chance, then I won’t let you have an easy time of it either!” The silver-haired youth’s body began to glow with a white aura, and then, with a cold shot, a white spear suddenly appeared next to him, along with a translucent spear.

The material attack and the spiritual attack converged into one!

“Swish!”

The two spears folded onto each other, and the illusory white spear shot straight towards the front.

“Die, then.” The green-eyed, violet-robed youth said emotionlessly.

“Rumble…” The lightning bolts in the skies suddenly crashed down in the form of an enormous lightning serpent. At the same time, a green bolt of lightning emerged from the body of the violet-robed youth, also in the form of an enormous serpent. These two enormous lightning serpents attacked from opposite directions, encircling the silver-haired youth.

Right at this moment, the spear arrived before the violet- robed youth’s body.

“Hmph!” The violet-robed youth let out a cold sneer.

He stretched out his right hand, and between his ﬁngers formed a ball of violet light, which he smashed directly onto the illusory spear.

“BANG!”

That illusory white spear was a combination material attack and spiritual attack. And now, the illusory white spear completely shattered. The material attack…wasn’t even able to damage the violet-robed youth’s ﬁngers. The spiritual attack was broken as well.

“Crackle…” The violet and green electric serpents swirled around the silver-robed youth, whose face changed. The two different electric serpents actually created an unusual spatial electric ﬁeld, causing the space itself to become electriﬁed. That unusual electric ﬁeld rippled throughout the silver-haired man’s body.

“Ahhhhhh!” The white-robed, silver-haired youth raised his head, roaring angrily.

A powerful aura swept out from his body, and the white glow strengthened.

“At a time like this, you want to ﬁght by using up Sovereign’s Might? You use yours, and I’ll use mine. Isn’t the result the same?” Lancelot laughed in his heart. His body also emanated forth a powerful aura, and the violet light began to ﬁll his entire body as well.

As the two experts both began to use their Sovereign’s Might, Linley and Bebe also quietly slipped out of the mountain, moving underground until they arrived at a place with a large amount of random vegetation. The two hid there, staring at the experts battling in the distance.

“They are both so strong.” Bebe said in praise.

“The white-robed youth is a commander of the Divine Light Plane, Roland [You’lan’de]. That green-eyed, violet-robed youth is a commander of the Divine Lightning Plane, ‘Lancelot’. According to the information provided by your Grandpa Beirut, this Lancelot is an extremely hard to deal with commander.” Linley said mentally. “Roland is specialized in spiritual attacks, while Lancelot is skilled in both spiritual and material attacks, and he is also extremely fast. In addition, he’s also fused a defensive Sovereign artifact into his body.”

Bebe couldn’t help but feel startled.

“Fused a defensive Sovereign artifact into his body? Isn’t that the same as the Grand Elder?”

Linley nodded slightly, continuing to watch the two battle in the distance. “That Lancelot should be unbeatable in terms of material defense, due to possessing a defensive Sovereign artifact, and he is also extremely skilled in soul defense. Thus, to break through his soul defense is also very hard. This person…is a very powerful commander.”

Lancelot was, indeed, virtually ﬂawless.

He trained in the Laws of Lightning and was thus very fast. He was strong in every single aspect. Even amongst the many commanders of the universe, he was considered a high class one.

“However…” Linley laughed. “Bebe, you perfectly counter him.”

To resist Bebe’s innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, one had to

either be a Paragon or have a soul-protecting Sovereign

artifact. This Lancelot had met his black star! Normally,

Lancelot’s soul defense should be considered incredibly

powerful, but unfortunately…Bebe’s innate divine ability wasn’t something which a normal soul attack could compete with.

“Haha, Boss, leave’m to me.” Bebe grew excited.

“The battle is about to end.” Linley sent mentally.

Indeed, the white-robed youth, ‘Roland’, was in a completely inferior position. The violet-robed Lancelot launched a ﬁnal material attack, causing Roland’s entire body to blow apart.

“Haha…” Lancelot laughed as he walked over, snatching up a golden badge as well as an interspatial ring from the ground.

Right at this moment…

“Who!” Lancelot barked irritably while turning his head. He could already sense that there were movements nearby, but he didn’t care too much. There were very few, even amongst the commanders, capable of killing him.

“Eh?” What Lancelot saw stunned him.

He saw a black blur ﬂying towards him at high speed, while at the same time, in midair, the enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat appeared. The Godeater Rat illusion was staring coldly at him, and when Lancelot saw this, his face couldn’t help but change. “Beirut?! Ah!!! NO!!!”

Lancelot had gone completely mad.

He had almost no weaknesses, but that was only against the vast majority of commanders. It didn’t mean he was completely ﬂawless. If he was completely perfect and ﬂawless, why would he even need to come to the Planar Battleﬁeld? Beirut’s innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, was extremely famous, and it perfectly countered people like Lancelot. Against this technique, all would perish, save those who had soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts and Paragons.

This was how dominating innate divine abilities were!

Lancelot didn’t understand. The legendary Beirut had a body which was even tougher than divine sparks, could use his bare hands to clash against Sovereign weapons, and who had a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact. He was that sort of completely ﬂawless supreme expert with no weaknesses. Someone like him…already stood at the very top of the universe.

Why did he have to come to the Planar Battleﬁeld?

Lanacelot didn’t understand!

But…he wouldn’t have a chance to understand in the future either!

A unique rippling power spread across his soul, and in the face of this attack, his soul defense wasn’t able to do a single thing.

Lancelot stood there, stunned. That sinister look would never again ﬂash past his green eyes. He seemed completely wooden…and then, with a ‘bang’ sound, he collapsed against the ground. A divine spark drifted out, along with a golden badge which emerged from his body, along with a dark golden armor.

“A gold badge and a defensive Sovereign artifact.” Linley’s eyes lit up.

Linley and Bebe transformed into two blurs, immediately collecting the golden badge, the defensive Sovereign artifact, and the interspatial rings.

“Let’s hurry and leave. We can’t tarry here.”

Linley and Bebe didn’t stay to do a thorough investigation, instead immediately leaving.

Chapter 20, A Tranquil Heart

“Rustle…”

A cold wind howled, and the grass swayed, bending down in supplication.

Lancelot and Roland’s corpses lay there on the ground, with no hint of life. Prior to this, they were both supreme experts of their respective planes, commander-level experts who imposed their will on their world! The reason they entered the Planar Battleﬁeld was because they hoped to rise to yet another level; to accumulate enough military merits so as to trade for a Sovereign artifact, allowing them to become high-level experts even amongst commanders.

Unfortunately…

For some to succeed, others had to fail. One commander’s success represented the deaths of ten commanders, or a hundred thousand Highgod soldiers! This was the price of success! Unluckily, Lancelot and Roland had just become failures.

“Whooooosh!”

The wind arose, and then stopped!

Two ﬁgures appeared within the battleﬁeld. These two were dressed in long green robes, and had long green hair. Even their faces and body shapes were similar. From the surface, the only difference between the two was that…one had golden eyebrows while the other had white eyebrows. Someone who didn’t recognize them, upon seeing them, would take the two to be a single person’s clones.

If Linley was here, he would recognize these two as being the legendary twin commanders of the Divine Wind Plane.

“Elder Brother, did you see that?” The man with the white eyebrows said solemnly.

The youth with the golden eyebrows took a look at the two corpses on the ground as well, nodding slightly. “I saw it. Although I’ve never personally seen the legendary innate divine ability of Beirut, based on the scryer recordings that I saw, I can afﬁrm that just now, that illusion should’ve been one of a Godeater Rat!” Prior to this, when Bebe had used his innate divine ability, the illusion of a Godeater Rat had been a hundred meters tall, allowing others to see it from far away.

This was the reason why Linley and Bebe had immediately left.

The youth with the white eyebrows nodded. “Lancelot…even if we joined forces against him, it would be a hard ﬁght. He was hard to deal with. Lancelot’s soul defense was exceedingly strong, and to kill him, a Highgod Paragon would be needed. But of course, there is also Beirut, who possessed such a terrifying innate divine ability. Beirut’s innate supreme technique ignores all ordinary soul defenses. The person who attacked just now…was most likely Beirut!”

Beirut had become famous just a bit more than ten thousand years ago!

As for Bebe, too few people knew of him. Bebe hadn’t done anything particularly breathtaking yet after having become a Highgod. How could these experts of other planes know about him? Thus, they all believed that it had been Beirut who had attacked!

“Beirut…why has he come to the Planar Battleﬁeld?” The youth with the white eyebrows said, frowning. “Given his power, he doesn’t need to come to this place. His punches and kicks are already comparable to Sovereign weapons. The Planar Battleﬁeld is already a chaotic enough place. With him joining the mix…this is absolutely unfair!”

“So what if it is unfair? Dare you go and have a grand battle against Beirut?” The youth with the golden eyebrows said with a laugh.

It was precisely because they had seen the illusion of a Godeater Rat that they had intentionally waited quite a while before returning. They were afraid they might run into Beirut. “Enough, Second Brother. Let’s go. Be careful. If we see that Beirut, let’s make sure we stay far away from him.” The youth with the golden eyebrows glanced at the two corpses on the ground, and then transformed into a blur and departed, with his younger brother following him. This empty area now only had those two lifeless corpses remaining.

Within that small black hill was an empty cave.

Linley and Bebe had emerged from underground and dug out this giant cave from within the hill.

“Haha, Boss, what great rewards, what great rewards!” Bebe excitedly called out, while tossing out one item after another; the violet armor, the interspatial rings, and everything else. Just as Bebe was about to excitedly say a few things, he suddenly froze.

“Boss!” Bebe looked at Linley, stunned.

Linley was currently staring at the golden badge in his hands.

His eyes were ﬁlled with excitement, and even tears.

“Finally. I ﬁnally have a golden badge.” Linley clenched his hand tightly around the golden badge, pressing it against his heart. In this moment, Linley felt as though this golden badge had transformed into his father, into George, into Yale. He couldn’t help but think of those precious memories from back when he was a toddler or when he was a youth.

The golden badge, to Linley…did it represent a Sovereign artifact?

No!

This was something which would allow the father he had lost in his youth to return. To let his brothers who had died such unjust deaths to return.

“Father. Boss Yale. George.” Linley shut his eyes and murmured. “I…can save at least one of you now! My father, my brothers…you have to wait for me. Wait for me to emerge from the Planar Wars. You’ve already endured for nearly two thousand years. Just endure a little longer!” “Wait for me…”

Tears unconsciously began to seep out from the corners of his eyes.

Ever since he had entered the Netherworld, over the past few decades, Linley had been under great pressure. He felt as though a giant stone was constantly pressing against his heart! First, he had to go to the Abyssal Mountain to meet the Chief Sovereign of Death, from whom he just barely saw a glimmer of hope. He then went to Tartarus to challenge the Redcliff Lord, ﬁnally succeeding and becoming qualiﬁed to enter the Planar Battleﬁeld.

But that had only been the beginning.

After entering the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley was under constant pressure, and he had a lost feeling in his heart. Deep in his heart, he even felt a hint of dread. This seemingly peaceful Planar Battleﬁeld had too many powerful experts hiding within it! Linley was afraid that he could encounter a truly supreme expert who would kill himself and Bebe. He wasn’t afraid of dying himself, but if Bebe were to die, Linley would forever regret it. And…if that happened, he would never again be able to save his father and his brothers.

After having been in the Planar Battleﬁeld for more than half a year, and after repeated failures, Linley had even begun to doubt himself.

Nervousness, restlessness! These emotions had constantly ensnarled Linley!

Although on the surface, it appeared as though Linley had lain in wait calmly, in his heart, Linley was frantic. This was because he hadn’t killed a single commander. He had begun to doubt if he would be able to acquire a single commander’s badge. This was the sort of nervous restlessness in which Linley had been living. But now…just now, such a huge battle had suddenly erupted.

And it had brought such an unexpected delight.

“I ﬁnally succeeded. A gold badge.” Linley said to himself. “Bebe and I, working together, will deﬁnitely succeed. It hasn’t even been a year, but I’ve already acquired a gold badge. In addition, there are nearly nine centuries left to this Planar War. I will deﬁnitely acquire enough gold badges.”

This success had allowed Linley’s heart to calm down greatly!

No matter how vicious and dangerous the future days would be, Linley would conﬁdently face them!

“Right. There’s another gold badge.” Linley suddenly turned to look towards Bebe, saying hurriedly, “Bebe, that interspatial ring. Hurry up and open it and take a look. When Roland was killed, that gold badge was placed into the interspatial ring.” Linley was feeling rather excited.

Bebe had been paying attention to Linley’s facial expressions this entire time, and he immediately laughed. “Alright, I’ll open it up right away.” Bebe understood that the tears Linley had just shed were tears of joy.

A single drop of blood ﬂew out from Bebe’s skin, landing atop the interspatial ring.

“Eh?” Bebe stared.

Linley couldn’t help but frown.

The drop of blood actually splashed onto the interspatial ring, then rolled off and fell to the ground, striking it with a ‘whap’ sound.

“Damn! That Lancelot has a divine clone that is still alive!” Bebe said angrily.

“So it really was the case!” Linley had been mentally prepared for this all along.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of commanders who entered the Planar Battleﬁeld would leave a divine clone outside. After all, the chance of death in the Planar Battleﬁeld was simply too high. As for Lancelot…clearly, he had left a divine clone outside as well, causing Linley to be completely unable to open this interspatial ring.

“Aaaargh!” Bebe immediately called out furiously. “The defensive Sovereign artifact! The defensive Sovereign artifact is also useless!”

If even the interspatial ring couldn’t be bound, then the same would naturally be true for the defensive Sovereign artifact.

Linley glanced at the dark golden armor, then laughed and said, “Bebe, don’t worry about that. You should know…this defensive Sovereign artifact was given to Lancelot by a Sovereign. Even though we killed him, the Sovereign will still take back the Sovereign artifact. At most, we’d be able to use it temporarily for a time.”

“I know this principle, but we should’ve at least been able to wear it for a time, right?” Bebe said helplessly. “For a time? Who knows when the Sovereign would come and take back the Sovereign artifact.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Linley even suspected that Sovereigns were monitoring the Planar Wars at all times. The Sovereigns might immediately take back their artifact, or they might wait…wait for a bit of time to pass before taking it. But one thing was certain; a Sovereign artifact acquired through killing someone would deﬁnitely be taken away by the Sovereign in the end.

“To me, what I really feel is unfortunate is the loss of that badge.” Linley shook his head and sighed.

“Right. We can’t take the badge out either.” Bebe said resignedly.

According to the rules of trading for military merits, once the Planar War concluded and the combatants exited through the interspatial gate, they would immediately receive military merits based on the number of badges acquired. Even if Linley found Lancelot’s clone in the future and forced him to withdraw the gold badge, it would be useless.

“So some badges actually end up going to waste like this.” Linley said with a bitter laugh.

Perhaps an expert might kill seven or eight other commanders and acquire seven or eight badges. But if the expert was in turn killed, that person would only acquire a single badge. As for the seven or eight badges in the interspatial ring, there was no way to retrieve them. They had to go to waste.

“There must be many that go to waste. For example, during the ﬁnal battle in the Stellar Sea corridors.” Bebe said with a sigh. “That’s a place where you gamble with your life. Perhaps you’ll end up ﬁghting all the way into the chaotic space regions of the Stellar Sea. Also, some badges will fall into the chaotic space regions or the spatial tears of the Stellar Sea.” Bebe said.

Linley nodded slightly.

“It seems as though relying on taking advantage of the work of others isn’t a simple thing. Unless the person has no divine clone outside, of course. But the number of people who would do that is too little.” Linley said, shaking his head.

Acquiring enough military merits wasn’t a simple task. It had to be done step by step.

“Boss, what should we do with the interspatial ring? Destroy it, or keep it?” Bebe said.

“Keeping it will only result in problems and no beneﬁts.

Destroy it.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

“Whap!” Bebe exerted some force, completely crushing the interspatial ring in his ﬁngers. The items within the interspatial ring all transformed into nothingness as well.

“This Sovereign artifact…leave it here for the Sovereign to collect.” Linley said with a calm laugh. “Haha, actually, even if we wanted to destroy it, we wouldn’t be able to.” Bebe said, then he gave the dark golden armor a few kicks. “Damn, it’s pretty hard. Hmph…my body hasn’t reached its limits yet. In the future, I deﬁnitely won’t be weaker than any Sovereign artifact.” Bebe harrumphed.

Although Bebe’s defensive power was great, each time he devoured a divine spark, he continued to use the essence of the divine spark to strengthen his body.

It was a process that took some time. The amount of time Bebe had spent at the Highgod level was a million years less than what Beirut had spent. There was still a difference between the two of them.

Linley calmly trained there in the cave, while his original body continued to control his Deathgod Golem as bait.

The Planar Battleﬁeld was the same as it previously had been. On the surface, it was calm, but in the shadows, battles and massacres occasionally erupted. Although the Planar Battleﬁeld was very dangerous, Linley, having succeeded once, was now conﬁdent in himself. He had acquired a gold badge in less than a year. If he could acquire one every ten years, much less every year, he would easily accomplish his goal.

He calmly waited. Waited for a big ﬁsh to bite on his bait.

“With my heart at peace…my training has increased in speed as well.” Linley laughed calmly, opening his eyes.

“Eh?” Bebe, as though sensing it, opened his eyes to look at Linley as well. “Boss, what is it?”

“Bebe, make your preparations. I’ve already discovered people nearby.” A hint of light ﬂashed through Linley’s eyes.

“We have a target?” Bebe instantly grew excited, jumping to his feet. “Haha, it’s been less than half a month, but we have a new target. It’s time for me to show my skills off yet again. Haha!” Bebe was extremely energetic. “Don’t be impatient. Let’s see if they are enemies ﬁrst. Let’s go!”

Linley and Bebe immediately, quietly slipped through the underground tunnels, leaving the mountain.

Chapter 21, Flee on Sight

A short, black-robed ﬁgure ﬂew out, moving like dark smoke through the cold, clammy underground earth of the Planar Battleﬁeld.

“Eh?”

The ﬁgure suddenly came to a halt, staring stealthily into the distance. His eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s, but the strange thing was that he was bald, but a layer of dark black light was atop his bald head, like a thin layer of black metal. This dark black scalp also had a round rune atop it.

“Someone is actually here?” The bald youth stared into the distance. “An enemy!”

After ascertaining the enemy’s status, the bald youth didn’t hesitate at all. “Swoosh!” Very suddenly, the bald youth accelerated explosively, shooting out like a meteor towards the black-robed man. The black-robed man suddenly turned his head, clearly seeing him. Not hesitating at all, the black-robed man immediately ﬂed with a ‘whoosh’.

“You won’t be able to escape!” The bald youth’s body ﬂashed forward bizarrely.

The surrounding area saw the formation of a spherical, earthen yellow glow which completely ‘surrounded’ the black- robed man, who was trying to ﬂee. Stuck within the earthen yellow light, the black-robed man’s speed dropped dramatically. The bald youth seized the chance to immediately charge forwards, mercilessly striking out with his right hand.

The bald youth was wearing a black glove on his right hand.

His hand stretched out like the claws of a divine dragon, and as the space it passed through rippled and trembled. His claws instantly landed on the black-robed ﬁgure’s shoulder. “F*ck off!” The black-robed man growled, and then he struck back with his right leg, kicking towards the youth. “Crunch!” A very clear sound. The black-robed man’s shoulder was completely ripped apart.

“How tough.” The bald youth felt slightly startled, but he didn’t show any mercy.

As the right hand claw smashed down against the shoulder, it also then struck directly towards the black-robed man’s head. As the right claw struck out, it actually formed a bizarre, spherical ball of light, causing even the nearby space to be bound, making it impossible for the black-robed man’s head to dodge to any great degree.

“Slash!” The ﬁve ﬁngers of the bald youth’s right hand pierced directly into the black-robed man’s skull, and the man’s head immediately exploded. The bald youth was very conﬁdent. “This kick of yours won’t be able to land on me.” As the bald youth saw it, once the black-robed man died, he naturally wouldn’t be able to continue to attack.

“BANG!” The force of the black-robed man’s right kick didn’t lessen at all, crashing straight against the chest of the bald youth.

The bald youth was knocked backwards, and he landed on the ground.

“Wait. That’s a Deathgod Golem!” The bald youth came to a shocked awareness. “This is a trap!”

“Bang!” The bald youth kicked off furiously from the ground, and as he did, that spherical glow emanated from his right foot, the foot which kicked downwards. Instantly, he rocketed away, moving at high speed. As he moved, he would occasionally kick off from the ground again, each time creating that spherical glow, causing his speed to rise to a terrifying level.

Moving as fast as lightning, in two or three leaps, he disappeared from the ﬁeld of view.

“This fellow ran too fast!” By the time Linley and Bebe emerged from the ground, all they could see was the departing back of the bald youth. Linley and Bebe had no choice but to vent their anger on a nearby boulder. “As soon as the Deathgod Golem discovered him, he almost instantly discovered that it was a Deathgod Golem and that it was a trap! After discovering it was a Deathgod Golem, he didn’t even pause and instead immediately ﬂed. Jeeze!” Linley couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Nothing to show for it.” Bebe pursed his lips and said, then turned to look at the distant, headless Deathgod Golem. “And we even lost a Deathgod Golem. Boss, who was that person?”

“Cloyd [Ke’luo’yi’de]! An extremely strong commander who belongs to the Divine Earth Plane. He likes to travel alone.” Linley said with a laugh. Through the Deathgod Golem, Linley saw Cloyd’s attack, and just by seeing Cloyd’s attack, Linley became completely certain of who Cloyd was. “However, Cloyd doesn’t have a single Sovereign artifact. We are completely capable of killing him.”

Linley felt rather regretful. It was an excellent opportunity. Unfortunately, Cloyd was too cautious. Upon discovering that it was a trap, he had immediately ﬂed without hesitating at all.

“He doesn’t have a single Sovereign artifact, and yet he’s strong?” Bebe said with a frown.

“That’s what the intelligence reports your Grandpa Beirut provided to me said. Cloyd simply doesn’t wish to be restricted and so doesn’t wish to become a Sovereign’s Emissary, which is why he has no Sovereign artifacts. But despite that…killing him is extremely difﬁcult.” Linley let out a sigh. “An expert of the Laws of the Earth! He must have fused at least ﬁve of the profound mysteries.”

The clawing blow he had delivered which had shattered the Deathgod Golem’s shoulder contained ﬁve profound mysteries.

The Deathgod Golem was torn through like mud.

Just as Linley and Bebe were chatting mentally, from the corner of his eyes, Linley saw a distant ﬁgure suddenly appear. He immediately turned to look…only to see that roughly two or three hundred meters away, a black ﬁgure was lying in hiding, seeming to inspect the Deathgod Golem that was lying on the ground.

Linley suddenly grew excited. “Bebe, we have a target. Three hundred meters to our left.”

“Target?” Bebe turned to look as well.

Just at this moment…

The distant black-robed ﬁgure, also vigilant, discovered that there were two ﬁgures not far away who were lying against the corner of a mountain boulder. Right at this moment…the gazes of Linley and the black-robed man met.

Linley was suddenly startled, and he immediately sent through divine sense to Bebe, “Bebe, this black-robed man…I can’t sense the badge aura on him. He is an enemy. Let’s attack!” The closer one was, the more easily one could sense the badge aura. Linley and the enemy were less than three hundred meters away.

Logically speaking, even if he didn’t have a clear sense, he should still sense a bit of the badge’s aura.

But if he didn’t sense anything at all…

“Haha, one ran away, but another one was drawn close.

Haha.” Bebe was extremely excited.

This black-robed person was indeed drawn here by the earlier actions of the bald youth. He had snuck over and watched quietly to the side. But Linley and Bebe were in a fairly hidden location, from which they just so happened to be able to clearly see the black-robed ﬁgure.

“Hmph.” The black-robed ﬁgure very calmly turned and ﬂed.

“He’s running?” Linley’s ﬁrst reaction was to unleash his Blackstone Field. An enormous earthen yellow aura instantly sprang out, with Linley at the center, expanding to a radius of ﬁve hundred meters. This Blackstone Space spread out far faster than the black-robed man ran; as soon as the man moved, he fell within the Blackstone Space.

The gravity pulling was towards Linley!

“Gravitational Space? What a powerful gravity, and it is pulling to the rear!”

The black-robed man was now shocked. He couldn’t help but turn to look, and the already Dragonformed Linley and Bebe had transformed into a pair of azure and black blurs, advancing towards him rapidly.

“Pursuing me?” The black-robed man didn’t resist, instead choosing to ﬂee. But attempting to ﬂee while completely pulling against the gravitational force…how fast could he move?

“You want to run?” Linley stared ﬁxedly at the black-robed man, pursuing at high speed. In Linley’s eyes, this black-robed man deﬁnitely had a gold badge. Every single gold badge represented that he would be able to save another one of his family or friends. While in hot pursuit, the distance between the two quickly shrank to less than a few dozen meters.

In the Blackstone Space, the black-robed man’s speed was reduced by simply too much.

The black-robed man was angry now!

“I don’t want to ﬁght with you two. Let me leave.” A divine sense rang out, echoing in Linley and Bebe’s minds. “Otherwise, don’t blame me for being discourteous!”

“You want to leave? And be discourteous?” Linley laughed. “Bebe, you can act now. He won’t be able to escape at this distance.” Linley sent mentally.

“Don’t worry, Boss.” Bebe laughed delightedly.

Right at this moment…

“You are looking for death.” The black-robed man, who had been suppressing his temper, suddenly stabbed backwards with a dagger.

“Swoosh!”

A black light suddenly shot out, shooting towards Linley, so fast…that Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all.

“So fast!” Frantically, Linley stabbed out powerfully with the godspark sword, ‘Mirage’, which was in his hands. “BANG!”

The tip of Mirage collided with the tip of the dagger.

Linley only felt a terrifying powerful force press towards him, going through Mirage and into his arms. “Crackle…” The draconic scales covering his right arm, which was gripping Mirage, instantly shattered. Blood began to ﬂow out, and Linley was knocked backwards as well.

When Linley retreated, the Blackstone Field centered around him moved backwards as well, allowing the black-robed man to escape the perimeter of the Blackstone Field!

“A Sovereign artifact!” Linley was shocked.

The black-robed man had pulled away from Linley, but not with Bebe!

“Boss!” Bebe was instantly enraged.

Immediately, a colossal phantom of a Godeater Rat once more appeared behind Bebe. The black-robed man turned to look, and what he saw terriﬁed him so greatly, his face changed. “How…how can this be?! Beirut’s innate divine ability!!!” Beirut’s technique was famous throughout the universe. Even many people who had never seen Beirut use this technique in person had seen scryer recordings of Beirut using his supreme attack.

“No….!” The black-robed man wanted to once more speak with his divine sense.

Unfortunately, the speed of an innate divine ability was comparable to the speed of using divine sense to communication.

As for Bebe, he used his innate divine ability ﬁrst, and so the black-robed man didn’t even have a chance to plead his case!

“Rumble…” A strange ripple wrapped around the black-robed man’s head, and immediately, a divine spark ﬂoated out from it. As for the black-robed man, he lifelessly slumped downwards, while the black dagger that had been ﬂying back towards him fell to the ground as well. At the same time, a white badge fell out of his body.

“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”

Linley and Bebe landed before his body.

Linley was stupeﬁed. “What? A white badge?” Linley stared at the white badge, not daring to believe it.

Of the two sides in this battle, the Divine Light Plane had gold badges for commanders and white badges for soldiers.

“It’s actually a soldier badge?” Linley couldn’t believe it.

A person who had a Sovereign artifact…was a soldier?

“Boss, hurry up and leave. We can’t stay here any longer.” Bebe said hurriedly.

Only now did Linley come to his senses. Not hesitating any further, Linley and Bebe hurriedly collected the interspatial ring, Sovereign dagger, and white badge, then immediately ﬂew away.

Within a cave that was inside a large mountain.

“All of these people have divine clones outside. Even though we killed them, we still aren’t able to bind their interspatial rings or Sovereign artifacts with blood.” Bebe said, angry and helpless. “The Sovereign artifact is one thing; the Sovereign will take it back eventually, after all. But the interspatial ring deﬁnitely has quite a few things inside. What a pity, what a pity.”

Linley just stared at the white badge. “He was actually a soldier!” “It really is very odd. A soldier who had a Sovereign artifact?” Bebe muttered.

Linley suddenly had a thought, and many things instantly made sense. He couldn’t help but shake his head resignedly and say, “Bebe, I understand now. We found the wrong target.”

“What is it?” Bebe said, puzzled.

Linley sighed. “Bebe, didn’t you notice? When the black- robed person discovered us, his ﬁrst reaction was to ﬂee. When we pursued him, his second reaction was to warn us that he didn’t want to ﬁght us, and that if we kept on bothering him, he would attack. Why didn’t he want to ﬁght? He had a Sovereign artifact, so why ﬂee? I think…the reason was because he was on our side.”

“On our side?” Bebe was stunned.

“Right.” Linley said helplessly. “I think this person should be a commander on our side, but he removed his commander badge and instead bound with blood this enemy’s soldier badge and became an enemy ‘soldier’. He bound an enemy’s soldier badge by blood. Once he gets close to an enemy commander, he would sense their aura, and so ﬁnd them easily. In addition, he would be able to launch an ambush attack. Two birds with one stone! The only ﬂaw, however, is that he will be attacked by the people on his own side!”

Disguising one’s self as the enemy had beneﬁts but also costs.

That poor, black-robed man. He fell to Linley and Bebe’s deadly hands.

Chapter 22, Sixty Years in the Planar Battleﬁeld

“This fellow was pretending to be an enemy. I was happy for nothing.” Bebe waved his hand, withdrawing a red fruit which he viciously ‘crunched’ into with crisp chewing sounds. “Boss, all of these commanders are incredibly sly and careful. Finding a suitable target is tough. How infuriating.”

“If you feel irritated, calm down and train.” Linley just sat down into the meditative position, beginning to train silently.

This sort of life would last for another eight centuries. Linley hoped to make yet another major improvement within these eight hundred years.

Atop the vast, desolate earth, three ﬁgures of different heights were staring into the distance, looks of shock on their faces. Bebe’s usage of his innate divine ability had created an illusion that was over a hundred meters tall, and so these three saw it from hundreds of kilometers away. Although the three knew that someone was present a few hundred kilometers away, they didn’t dare go over.

“Hey, that Beirut really did come to the Planar Battleﬁeld.” The shorter man raised an eyebrow, speaking with disbelief.

When Bebe had used his innate divine ability to kill Lancelot, other commanders had seen it, resulting in the rumor of Beirut having arrived in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Although Bebe had also used his innate divine ability on the other side against a violet-robed ﬁgure and was seen doing so, that news had only circulated amongst the commanders on that side and hadn’t made it to the enemy side.

“Judging from that illusion, it really was Beirut’s innate divine ability. I thought that the rumor was fake, but it was real! Why has Beirut run over to the Planar Battleﬁeld along with us? Does he want to ﬁght over military merits with us? He has no need of it!” A white-haired, white-browed man with a single horn let out a sigh.

The third was a black-robed, black-haired woman. “What are you afraid of? We won’t go antagonize that Beirut. But…if we join forces, we don’t need to be afraid of him either.” The black-robed woman said in a gravelly voice.

“Anya [An’ya]! Don’t be too self-conﬁdent. According to legend, Beirut is even harder to deal with than a Highgod Paragon.” The white-haired, white-browed man said seriously. “He doesn’t fear the attacks of Sovereign weapons at all, nor does he fear soul attacks…he is completely ﬂawless. In addition, his material attacks and soul attacks are both incredibly powerful! If the three of us fought against him, he would defeat us one at a time.”

The black-robed woman gave the white-browed man a glance.

“Don’t doubt me.” The white-browed man said solemnly.

Beirut had been famous for too short a period of time. Although he had become a Highgod long ago, Beirut had been able to endure being by himself and had remained in the Yulan continent. It was only ten thousand years ago that he had sprang to sudden prominence. Over the course of that rise to fame, he had become known as an invincible ﬁgure.

“He has no ﬂaws, and is strong in every aspect.” The shorter man said helplessly.

His innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, could be described as the most powerful soul attack in existence.

Beirut’s material attacks were executed through a Sovereign weapon. Even the Patriarchs of the eight great clans who had Sovereign artifacts of their own were heavily injured by a single blow of Beirut’s staff. One could imagine how terrifying his material attacks were.

Who could possibly oppose someone like this?

“Let’s go. The three of us need to be careful during this Planar War.” The white-browed man said calmly. “If necessary, we can just acquire fewer military merits during this Planar War. We can participate in the next one! I imagine Beirut wouldn’t be so bored as to participate in the next one as well. And the next Planar War will arrive shortly!”

“Right.” The other two nodded in agreement as well.

The three immediately left.

Beirut. Highgod Paragons. They were at the very top of the world of Deities. Only Sovereigns were capable of easily dealing with them. The difference between them and normal Highgods was simply too vast.

In addition, the three-person squad of experts was in no hurry.

Because…

Although the Planar Wars were carried out only once every trillion years, there was more than one war in each session of the Planar Wars.

It must be understood that there are Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Realms. The ‘Life Realm’ did not participate in this sort of war, and so the other ten engaged in battles against each other, over the course of ﬁve sessions of the Planar Wars. The Divine Darkness Plane against the Divine Light Plane was just one, and after it concluded, a short period of time later, other Divine Planes would battle against each other, and even the Higher Realms would participate.

There would be ﬁve consecutive sessions of Planar Wars.

Generally speaking, if they were carried out quickly, the entire thing would be concluded in ten thousand years. Even if they were carried slowly, the Planar Wars would still conclude within a million years. After the ﬁve battles concluded…they would restart after a trillion years passed!

A trillion years was a very long period of time. If an expert had latent potential, a trillion years was more than enough time for him to completely bring his latent potential to the surface. If a person remained an ordinary Highgod after a trillion years, then even if you gave him ten times or a hundred times the amount of time, he still probably wouldn’t increase in power any further. In addition, during each Planar Wars, a large number of Highgods and commanders would die. This mechanism ensured that the number of supreme experts in the various planes didn’t rise to an excessively large ﬁgure.

But of course, it also made the strong even stronger!

Beirut had arrived at the Planar Battleﬁeld!

This news quickly spread amongst the various commanders. The commanders all knew each other, and although many of them didn’t quite believe it the ﬁrst time they heard it, when Bebe had once again used his innate divine ability to kill that black-robed man, others had witnessed it in addition to those three.

This news was now completely veriﬁed!

This caused an earthquake in the entire battleﬁeld!

Within a military camp.

A beardless, middle-aged man with silver hair and elegantly drooping eyebrows was seated facing a golden-haired youth. The two were drinking wine.

“Mr. Magnus, you don’t believe me?” The golden-haired youth laughed.

“I believe you.” The silver-haired, middle-aged man raised a long eyebrow, then shook his head uncomprehendingly. “However, Beirut is someone who can be said is at the peak of Deities. He should care more about his status. Even if he decided to take a stroll about the Planar Battleﬁeld, he should remain within one of the military camps and smile while watching the other commanders kill each other. He shouldn’t lower himself to go butcher those commanders.”

“Mr. Magnus, that’s just your own viewpoint.” The golden- haired youth laughed. Magnus was also someone who stood at the very peak of the world of Deities! Although he stationed himself at a military camp, this was simply out of boredom. It was a game to him.

There was still a gap between ordinary commanders and Highgod Paragons or the likes of Beirut. For Beirut or Magnus to go attack those ordinary commanders really was an act of butchery.

“No. Although I’ve never met this Beirut, I’ve heard some stories of him. He’s the type of person who is extremely capable of enduring and hiding. He’s deﬁnitely not the sort of person who would be bored and lower himself to slaughtering ordinary commanders.” Magnus shook his head. “I suspect… that perhaps it isn’t Beirut who used that technique.”

“Not him?” The golden-haired youth was startled.

“Right. Perhaps in the universe, there is another person who also possesses Beirut’s supreme technique as well.” Magnus said meditatively. Bebe had only become a Highgod two centuries ago.

The members of the Four Divine Beasts clan only knew that Bebe was Beirut’s ‘grandson’; they didn’t know that Bebe was like Beirut, someone capable of the ‘Godeater’ innate divine ability…much like how the children and descendants of the Azure Dragon didn’t all necessarily have the Azure Dragon’s strength. They didn’t think that Bebe had that sort of power.

Bebe’s reputation had yet to spread.

The Planar Battleﬁeld. At the top of a tall mountain peak.

A white-robed man with crimson eyebrows was currently leaning against the mountain. The wind rustled past his long black hair, but he simply leisurely held his cup of wine, lowering his head to take a sip. It was Blueﬁre, who had entered the Planar Battleﬁeld not long ago.

In the Planar Battleﬁeld, the various commanders all hid their tracks. Who dare to reveal himself, much less stand at the top of a mountain?

At the top of the mountain peak, staring down at the endless world, Blueﬁre laughed and shook his head. “Innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’? Mm, it seems Bebe and Linley had arrived at this side of the Stellar Sea as well.” Blueﬁre casually stood there at the top of the mountain, drinking his wine, but if someone were to stare at him from afar, they wouldn’t see anyone there.

The strange thing was…

The space surrounding Blueﬁre was distorted.

“The Planar Wars…ten commanders must die for someone to have enough military merits for a Sovereign artifact. In addition, quite a few commanders who are killed had badges in their interspatial rings, which go to waste! For each Sovereign artifact to be acquired, far more than ten commanders will die.” Blueﬁre let out a light sigh.

“Whoosh!” Blueﬁre slid down the mountain, moving like a comet and quickly disappearing from that space.

Time ﬂowed on, and in the blink of an eye, sixty years passed.

Inside a mountain cave within the Planar Battleﬁeld.

“We lost yet another Deathgod Golem.” Bebe mumbled.

Linley, who was training nearby, opened his eyes. “Nothing to show for it?”

“Nothing.” Bebe said resignedly.

Controlling the Deathgod Golems was originally meant to be Linley’s job, but Bebe was bored and so he would occasionally take over. Only, Linley hadn’t imagined…that ever since he had acquired that gold badge and that white badge, he had not acquired a single extra badge despite the passage of sixty years. In addition, Linley discovered that the commanders he did in fact ﬁnd were ones whom he couldn’t take action against.

Because…

If they encountered solo experts, those experts were either too cautious or too strong.

The other possibility was a team of two or three experts, or sometimes even four. With them moving together, even if Linley and Bebe attacked and killed one of them, the others would make sure that Linley and Bebe wouldn’t be able to ﬂee.

“How did this Deathgod Golem end up being destroyed?” Linley laughed.

“Boss, this time, we actually encountered Hemmers.” Bebe said helplessly. “How could we end up running into that big idiot again?” Linley could only laugh bitterly.

“Be patient. The Planar Wars will go on for a thousand years. As it goes on, the survivors are increasingly those who have certain abilities to rely upon. It won’t be so easy to ﬁnd someone to kill. What I hope for is that in the next eight hundred years, I’ll be able to fuse a fourth profound mystery. At that time, I won’t have much to fear.”

Linley knew very well that although he was fairly powerful, in reality, in terms of soul defense and soul attack power, he was inferior to other commanders. However, after he fused a fourth profound mystery, given his innate azure aura in his sea of consciousness, his soul defense would rise nearly tenfold, while his material attack would also increase nearly tenfold.

By then, aside from a few people like Beirut, others wouldn’t be capable of making Linley feel afraid.

“I need more time!” Linley closed his eyes, his original body and his divine earth clone focused on training. But after just three months…Linley broke through! But of course, the breakthrough wasn’t in the Laws of the Earth; Linley was still a long ways off from ﬁnishing his fourth fusion. This breakthrough was…in his divine wind clone!”

“Eh?” Bebe suddenly glanced at Linley.

An enormous surge of the natural laws descended upon Linley, and a large amount of wind-type elemental essence began to swirl above him. From within Linley’s body, yet another body ﬂew out…one with long green hair and a green robe. His divine wind clone. Just then, Linley had ﬁnally, completely mastered a ninth profound mystery in the Laws of the Wind.

“Wow, Boss, you mastered the Laws of the Wind as well.” Bebe began to laugh.

“Yes, I’ve ﬁnished them.” Linley’s original body ﬂew to one side. His elemental afﬁnity for earth and wind were both ‘exceptional’; only, over the course of his training, he had favored earth more. Who would have imagined that of the four elements, wind would actually end up being his third slowest, behind both earth and water?

However, he had ﬁnally become a Highgod!

Now, only ‘ﬁre’ was missing.

“Not good!” Linley’s face suddenly changed.

“What is it, Boss?” Bebe was still feeling excited and happy at Linley’s breakthrough.

“The descent of the natural laws. Such a major, noticeable event will deﬁnitely attract quite a few people.” Linley said hurriedly. Linley was instantly frantic; other commanders might come over while his divine wind clone’s divine spark was in the middle of the transformation process, which made him temporarily unable to move, albeit for just a short period of time… But that short period of time was enough to allow other experts to come over.

“What is there to fear!” Bebe’s eyes actually lit up. “If one comes, we’ll kill one. If two come, we’ll kill two. If we can’t kill them…we’ll ﬂee!”

Linley couldn’t help but feel helpless. Still, Linley immediately set up his ‘Blackstone Space’, which passed through the stones of the mountain, creating a hemisphere ﬁve hundred meters in size.

Chapter 23, Three Person Squad

“Hopefully, no one will come. However, given how savage the commanders are to each other, I imagine they won’t give up a chance like this.” Linley said quietly in his heart, while at the same time, his body became covered by those azure-golden draconic scales. He immediately Dragonformed! Mirage appeared in his hands as well. As for Bebe, he was by Linley’s side. The two were prepared for a ﬁght.

The sudden descent of the natural Laws was simply too obvious. Virtually everyone in the entire plane noticed it.

“A breakthrough? There’s actually a God or Demigod level clone in the Planar Battleﬁeld?”

“How bizarre. Can it be that someone actually brought his Demigod or God clone into the Planar Battleﬁeld? To bring a weak divine clone in instead of leaving it outside…this person is just throwing his life away.”

“The descent of the natural Laws means this person’s position is exposed. Nine out of ten, that person will die.” The Planar Battleﬁeld was ﬁlled with discussions regarding this. Everyone in the Planar Battleﬁeld should be a Highgod. The descent of the natural Laws was a very bizarre occurrence here. However, because people were at varying distances from Linley, it was only the extremely close commanders who immediately ﬂew at high speed towards the origin point of the descent of the Laws!

The cold, grim Planar Battleﬁeld. A gray-robed ﬁgure was ﬂying towards the mountain.

“This is a rare, superb opportunity. Perhaps I’ll be able to acquire a badge.” The gray ﬁgure ﬂew at very high speed, but by the time he ﬂew to the base of the mountain, he suddenly came to a halt. His form was revealed as that of a violet-eyed, gray-robed youth with long hair.

He was currently staring at a nearby white-clothed ﬁgure.

“Benﬁeld [Ben’fei’er’de] of the Celestial Realm?” Terriﬁed, the violet-eyed, gray-robed youth’s face changed. “Benﬁeld. That means his other two companions must be present as well. If they surround me, I’ll deﬁnitely die. Since those two have come, that idiot in the mountain who actually brought a God- level divine clone into the Planar Battleﬁeld deﬁnitely won’t be able to survive!” Not hesitating at all, the violet-eyed, gray- robed youth immediately retreated at high speed.

He ﬂew over, saw the white-robed ﬁgure, then immediately retreated.

This process happened in an instant.

“Eh?” The white-robed ﬁgure seemed to have felt something. He suddenly turned his head and saw the gray-robed ﬁgure disappear. The white-robed man let out a calm laugh. “He ran fairly fast.” The white-robed ﬁgure had long, silver-white hair. His face was as beautiful as a woman’s, and his eyes seemed to contain the stars within them as he stared upwards into the sky.

“Swoosh!” The white-robed man ﬂew into the sky, towards the midway point of the mountain.

“Boss, we are already halfway up the mountain, close to the point where the natural Law ripples descended.” A deep voice echoed out in the white-robed man’s mind.”

“Elder Brother, I arrived as well.” A clear voice rang out in his mind as well.

Right at this moment, suddenly…

The natural Law ripples suddenly weakened at a fast pace. The transformation upon breaking through was a fairly fast process. Clearly, Linley’s divine wind clone’s divine spark transformation had already concluded.

“We didn’t make it in time for the best opportunity.” The clear voice said discontentedly. “Third Brother, let’s do it.” The white-robed man gave the order.

“Haha, watch me!” The white-robed man was less than a hundred meters away from a black-armored man, who was standing there in midair. This muscular, black-armored man was nearly three meters tall, and he had a pair of thick, curved horns on his forehead. His hammer-like ﬁsts were covered with a crimson pair of gloves.

The muscular man give a low growl, bending as he suddenly smashed downwards with his ﬁsts towards the mountain.

Soundlessly, the two giant crimson hammer-ﬁsts slammed against the mountain.

“Rumble…”

Space itself trembled, and instantly, at the location where the two ﬁst blows landed, a deep round crevice that was a meter in diameter suddenly appeared. A large number of shattered stones fell out from this new ‘cave’, and the entire side of the mountain cracked as well, as one savage-looking crevice after another appeared.

The muscular man stared, then roared furiously, “Motherf*cker, break!!!”

This time, he swung down with open palms, like two giant fan-shaped objects, smashing down upon the cracked mountain. Instantly, the upper part of the mountain, with a ‘boom’, completely crumbled, and countless stones of various sizes fell down from high above.

The white-robed man, the black-armored man, and a red- robed, jade-haired woman stood there in midair.

Linley hadn’t imagined that the enemy would be so powerful. Almost as soon as he had collected his divine wind clone back into his body, such a terrifyingly powerful tremor had gone through the mountain, which actually shattered. Although it didn’t crumble, the insides of the mountain were already damaged. The ﬁrst blow had damaged the insides.

The second blow seemed to have the power to shatter the heavens and the earth, causing the entire upper half of the mountain to completely collapse.

“What a powerful material attack.” Bebe couldn’t help but sigh in astonishment. “I imagine this attacker has a Sovereign weapon.” The mountains of the Planar Battleﬁeld were exceedingly tough, on a higher level than even the mountains of the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm. To destroy half of a mountain was something which even most commanders would ﬁnd difﬁcult.

“However, they clearly are afraid to come in.” Bebe snickered.

Linley and Bebe didn’t care about the crumbling mountain per se.

“Not only are they strong, they are cautious as well. They will be hard to deal with.” Linley held Mirage in his hand as he watched the surrounding boulders come cascading down. As the mountain crumbled, Linley was able to see the outside world, and indistinctly, he was able to make out the ﬁgure of a muscular man who had two horns on his forehead.

“Bebe, let’s ﬂee.” Linley hurriedly shouted through divine sense.

“Right.” Bebe didn’t hesitate either.

Linley and Bebe ﬂew directly towards the direction opposite from the muscular man, while at the same time Linley spread out his Blackstone Space. But just as they began to ﬂee, Linley was shocked to ﬁnd…“There are two people on this side!” Linley’s Blackstone Space easily discovered…

That a white-robed man and a red-robed, jade-haired woman were standing on each side.

The white-robed man, the jade-haired woman, and the black- armored man were situated in a triangle.

No matter where Linley and Bebe ﬂed, the three would still be able to attack in unison.

“The two of you, don’t even think of running.” The white- robed man swept them with a calm gaze. Although the Blackstone Space was applied to his body, the white-robed man just swayed slightly before counteracting the gravitational pull.

“Benﬁeld!” Linley’s face was exceedingly ugly to behold right now.

Linley never would have imagined that the person who had to stop them was actually the legendary ‘Benﬁeld’. He would rather encounter Hemmers than encounter this ‘Benﬁeld’, because…Benﬁeld was a supreme expert who was close to Beirut himself in power!

Beirut’s book had one bit of advice for someone who encountered Benﬁeld; ﬂee! Think of nothing else, just ﬂee! “Bebe, quick, ﬂee towards that red-robed woman. Hurry, ﬂee!” Linley immediately made his decision.

They had to break out from the direction of the red-robed woman, then escape.

“Got it, Boss. I didn’t expect it would be Benﬁeld. What horrible luck!” Bebe recognized him as well. Over the past sixty years in the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley had already provided Bebe with all of the information regarding the supreme experts through their spiritual link.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Linley and Bebe were like two bolts of lightning, shooting towards the jade-haired woman.

“Hmph, you want to ﬂee?” The white-robed man and the black-armored man ﬂew towards the red-robed woman at virtually the same instant. Clearly, they wanted to join forces with her and to stop Linley and Bebe.

Suddenly…

Linley and Bebe changed directions, ﬂeeing towards the original direction.

The black-armored man, white-robed man, and red-robed woman reacted very quickly, hurriedly attacking towards and chasing after Linley and Bebe. Unfortunately, Linley had already spread out the ‘Blackstone Space’ around himself. Upon entering the Blackstone Space, Benﬁeld and the other two weren’t able to catch them at all.

“They actually aren’t willing to give up.” Bebe turned to give them a glance. He couldn’t help but feel frantic.

“This looks bad.” Linley had a hint of worry in his eyes.

This was because the white-robed man and the black- armored man had actually ﬂown out of the Blackstone Space. They accelerated from the sides, seemingly planning to block Linley and Bebe from the front.

“Haha, Third Brother, Second Sister, watch how I’ll block them.” The white-robed man let out a loud laugh. His body moved as fast as lightning from the side, speeding past Linley and Bebe. And then, he suddenly charged into the Blackstone Space region, his body having transformed into white spots of light.

Spots of light?

No. It was multiple extremely thin white lines. Countless extremely thin white lines exploded forth from Benﬁeld’s body, appearing at ﬁrst glance to be a dazzling radiance. Those countless thin white strands shot out from every direction, surrounding Linley and Bebe, giving them no way to ﬂee.

Linley and Bebe’s faces instantly changed.

“Bebe, careful. A soul attack.” Linley hurriedly sent through divine sense.

“Bastard!” Bebe bellowed, and suddenly he ﬂew out from the side.

Behind Bebe, an enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat appeared. Bebe’s expression became cold and grim, and he stared unblinkingly at the black-armored warrior. At present, the black-armored warrior was less than two hundred meters away, and he was charging towards Linley and Bebe. He hadn’t imagined that Bebe had a supreme technique such as this.

“No…!” The black-armored warrior was badly shocked.

He recognized this. This was Beirut’s supreme technique!

“Not good! This is Beirut’s innate divine technique!” Previously completely conﬁdent, Benﬁeld’s face changed, and he called out nervously, “Second Sister, protect Third Brother!” Bebe’s innate divine ability was simply too fast, and he wasn’t able to stop it. He knew…that right now, only his second sister was able to save his third brother. Unfortunately, the red-robed woman was currently a bit too far away. They were unable to communicate by divine sense, only by voice, but how could a vocal shout make it in time? However, clearly the red-robed woman needed no warning. She too knew that her third brother had encountered a dangerous situation. Not hesitating at all, the red-robed woman’s body suddenly transformed…

“Rumble…”

Suddenly, the red-robed woman’s body disappeared, and instead, an enormous crimson serpent that was more than a thousand meters long appeared. When it’s coiled body appeared, it naturally was located in front of the black- armored warrior. Its enormous serpentine body easily protected the black-armored warrior’s entire body.

“Rumble…”

Bebe’s spiritual energy surged towards the enormous serpentine body, but it was unable to reach the black-armored man.

“Damnit, yet another one who has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Bebe sent furiously through divine sense.

Linley, upon seeing this happen, had already guessed what the result would be. For the red-robed woman to dare act in such a way deﬁnitely meant that she was conﬁdent this would work against Bebe’s technique. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be as good as suicide?

“Bebe, quick, ﬂee. Stop wasting time with them.” Linley sent frantically through their mental link. Using his Blackstone Space at full force, Linley hurriedly ﬂed.

Fighting against Benﬁeld was a no-win proposition.

“Swoosh!” Bebe hurriedly followed Linley in ﬂeeing at high speed.

Within the Blackstone Space, the three weren’t able to catch up to Linley and Bebe.

“Damnit, I thought that it was only Benﬁeld who would be formidable, but who would’ve imagined that the two he brought with him are so powerful as well? That horned fellow’s material attacks are very powerful, while that red- robed woman actually has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Bebe sent mentally to Linley, complaining. “These three together, with the powerful Benﬁeld leading them…Boss, how are we supposed to ﬁght against them?”

“Don’t even think of ﬁghting. Flee, and be thankful if we are able to.” Linley said hurriedly.

The two ﬂed at high speed.

However, Benﬁeld didn’t want to let the two of them off!

“You two!” The white-robed Benﬁeld was now truly angry. He cared deeply about his little sister and little brother. “BANG!” Suddenly, a wild surge of energy blasted forth from his body, and an aura of light instantly appeared on his form. Benﬁeld’s speed suddenly increased dramatically!

“Whoosh!”

After charging into the Blackstone Space, although Benﬁeld’s speed dropped dramatically, he was actually still faster than Linley and Bebe.

Linley could clearly sense that this person was quickly catching up to them within the Blackstone Space; he was actually faster than them. Linley turned to look, and was badly startled. “Not good. This Benﬁeld has gone crazy. For the sake of catching us, he’s actually used up a drop of Fate-type Sovereign’s Might!”

Chapter 24, A Dead End? A New Beginning!

Benﬁeld’s speed was far faster than theirs to begin with!

Linley had the Blackstone Space, but Benﬁeld had used Sovereign’s Might. Now, his speed was still faster than Linley’s! If they just let him chase like this, in just a few hundred meters, they would be caught!

“Hmph!” Linley willed…

…his Blackstone Space to suddenly change. The repulsive force transformed into an upwards gravity!

“Eh?” Benﬁeld’s body couldn’t help but sway, and he actually shot upwards.

“My Blackstone Space isn’t as simple as that.” Linley thought to himself. At the same time, he began to frantically change the direction of the Blackstone Space’s gravity, from up to down to repulsive. It must be understood that the power of this gravity was tremendous to begin with, and this sort of constant changing caused even Benﬁeld to be affected tremendously.

Benﬁeld couldn’t help but feel furious.

“All of you, die!” Benﬁeld’s voice was icy.

“Whoosh…”

One translucent arrow after another shot out from Benﬁeld’s body, shooting directly towards Linley and Bebe. Ten translucent arrows sliced through the air towards Linley and Bebe. The speed of this soul attack was extremely fast. Linley and Bebe were only able to dodge very slightly, and four translucent arrows still shot into Linley’s body.

As for Bebe, his body was struck by three arrows as well. Shocked, Linley’s face turned white. “Bebe, use Sovereign’s Might!” Benﬁeld’s soul attack was described in the materials which Beirut had provided. It was extremely terrifying. Now that Benﬁeld was using Fate-type Sovereign’s Might to attack… one could imagine how mighty it was.

“Rumble…” An earthen-yellow aura instantly spread out from Linley’s body.

Without hesitating at all, Linley used his earth-type Sovereign’s Might!

Within Linley’s mind.

“BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” “BANG!” Four translucent arrows struck viciously against the translucent membrane, but shattered like eggs striking against a rock. After shattering, however, they transformed into a large amount of translucent threads which spread out to surround the entire translucent membrane. And then, a large number of threads coiled about, attacking the ﬂaw. Countless invisible ‘Voidwave Swords’ shot out, clashing against the translucent threads.

“I have a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact and used earth- type Sovereign’s Might, but the patch over the opening was still more than half-broken through.” Linley was stunned.

Linley had rebuilt and repaired the patch over the ﬂaw in his soul-protecting Sovereign Artifact after leaving the Abyssal Mountain. Including the sixty years they had spent in the Planar Battleﬁeld, it had been nearly a century. A hundred years of work was half-wrecked in an instant, and that was after Linley had used earth-type Sovereign’s Might. If he hadn’t used earth-type Sovereign’s Might, he wouldn’t have been able to resist at all.

“How terrifying. Without this soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, even if I used Sovereign’s Might, I probably wouldn’t be able to endure.” Linley’s face suddenly changed. “Bebe!”

Bebe had been struck as well. “Boss, I’m ﬁne.” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind.

Linley discovered, to his amazement, that Bebe hadn’t used his Sovereign’s Might. However, somehow, Bebe had still been able to endure the blow despite not using Sovereign’s Might. If he had only relied on a soul-protecting artifact, there was no way he should have been able to do this. “Can it be that what Bebe has isn’t a soul-protecting artifact, but a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact? Or perhaps…Bebe’s soul is very unusual and his soul defense is extremely powerful?”

This thought ﬂashed through Linley’s mind.

Right now, however, he couldn’t ponder it in depth, because…things had gotten dangerous!

“Elder Brother!”

A deep voice rang out. The black-armored ﬁgure was currently standing atop the giant, coiling crimson snake, which was ﬂying over at high speed. The giant crimson snake had already ﬂown to the area in front of Linley and Bebe.

“Boss, the situation looks bad.” Bebe said frantically.

“I know.” Of course Linley knew the situation was bad.

The front was blocked by the giant crimson snake and the black-armored warrior, while Benﬁeld was behind them. They could neither go forward nor go back!

“How is it that Benﬁeld has two allies such as them? And they aren’t even in the same alliance.” Linley cursed angrily. In the course of his ﬂight, Linley had discovered that Benﬁeld and the other two weren’t in the same alliance; Linley wasn’t able to sense Benﬁeld’s badge’s aura. Clearly, he was an enemy!

But Linley could clearly sense the auras of the ‘red-robed woman’ who had transformed into a giant crimson snake, along with the black-armored man. Clearly, they were on Linley’s ‘side’.

People on different sides who had joined into a single squad.

“Bebe, follow me to ﬂee this way. Hurry!” Linley surrounded Bebe with his earth-type Sovereign power, ﬂying at maximum speed. Linley and Bebe ﬂew towards the side at high speed. By moving in this direction, Benﬁeld wouldn’t be able to attack them easily.

The power of the Blackstone Space had increased nearly a hundredfold as well, and the terrifying gravitational power made it hard for Benﬁeld to catch them.

“Swoosh!” Benﬁeld ﬂew out of the Blackstone Space. Within the Blackstone Space, he wasn’t able to catch up to Linley as well. “You two punks, listen up. Today, I, Benﬁeld, will deﬁnitely kill you two. Deﬁnitely!” His furious voiced echoed in the air.

As for Benﬁeld, he ﬂew virtually parallel to Linley and Bebe.

The two were separated solely by the Blackstone Space. The red-robed woman and the black-armored man were frantically trying to catch up as well.

“We can’t keep wasting time with this Benﬁeld. Just now, he simultaneously attacked myself and Bebe, and I found it very hard to endure it. If he continues to entangle us and unleash powerful attacks, I won’t be able to hold.” Linley wasn’t worried about Bebe, because Bebe had been able to endure the attack without using Sovereign’s Might.

“Boss, we have to throw this guy off.” Bebe sent mentally.

“I know.” Linley suddenly turned to look at the nearby Benﬁeld.

Behind him, an illusion of an enormous coiling Azure Dragon that was a thousand meters long suddenly appeared. The draconic head of the Azure Dragon hovered above Linley, staring at Benﬁeld. In Linley’s mind, his earth-type Sovereign power fused with his innate azure light, shooting directly towards the nearby Benﬁeld… Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar!

This innate divine ability, when used with earth-type Sovereign power, was extremely powerful!

“Eh?” Benﬁeld couldn’t help but feel his body slightly stiffen.

“Quick, ﬂee!” Linley and Bebe hurriedly seized the opportunity to ﬂee.

Benﬁeld was a supreme expert who was particularly skilled in soul attacks, and he also had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact and was protected by Sovereign’s Might. He quickly managed to throw off the restrictive bindings.

“You want to escape?” Benﬁeld saw Linley and Bebe’s ﬁgures disappearing, and he hurriedly chased after them.

As Linley and Bebe ﬂew away at high speed, Bebe cursed mentally, “Boss, that Benﬁeld really is annoying. He has a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact and a defensive Sovereign artifact. There’s no ﬂaw to attack, and he’s hard to kill, while his own soul attacks are so powerful. He really pisses me off!”

“I’m pissed too, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Linley had expected that the breakthrough of his divine wind clone would arouse some interest, but he didn’t imagine that it would attract the attention of someone as hard to deal with as Benﬁeld. Benﬁeld was deﬁnitely a perfect counter to Linley; he had two powerful Sovereign artifacts, giving Linley no way to ﬁght back, and he was also skilled at soul attacks.

How could Linley deal with such a person?

Even by using his innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, the only thing Linley could do was buy himself a little time for ﬂeeing!

“Damnit, Boss, he’s chasing after us again!” Bebe said furiously.

Linley turned to look, and saw a blurry form ﬂy over at high speed.

“This bastard really moves fast.” Linley was extremely frantic right now, but since the two had both used Sovereign’s Might, there was no way he would be able to outspeed this person. “It seems the only thing I can do is use my innate natural ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, to stop him yet again.” Linley mused to himself, but right at this moment…

Linley suddenly discovered that two ﬁgures appeared in front of him. Only high class commanders would dare to hover in the air of the battleﬁeld.

“This direction is closed off to you!” A calm voice rang out.

Linley and Bebe could sense the threat the person in front of them posed, and they came to a halt. Linley looked at the two of them and had the feeling…that these two were no less dangerous than Benﬁeld. The two were very odd. One was nearly four meters tall, his entire body a bronze color, exceedingly muscular and with a solemn, granite face. On the shoulder of this enormous, four- meter tall fellow, an adorable bald youth sat, chewing on some fruit. This youth was a size smaller than even Bebe.

But this youth…made Linley’s heart tremble.

“The two of you, please help stop them. I, Benﬁeld, will owe you two for it.” Benﬁeld said hurriedly.

Favors were hard to repay!

Benﬁeld’s words caused Linley and Bebe’s hearts to sink.

“Swoosh!” Linley and Bebe ﬂed towards another direction.

“Whoosh!” A ﬁgure suddenly appeared in front of Linley and Bebe. It was the adorable bald fellow who was eating the violet fruit.

“So fast.” Linley felt shocked in his heart.

“Why are you in such a hurry to run?” The bald youth cracked his lips into a grin. ‘Crunch’ ‘Crunch’. With two bites, he disposed of the fruit, then tossed the pit to one side.

“Elder Brother. The red-robed woman and black-armored man ﬁnally arrived as well.”

“The two of you, don’t even think of escaping.” The red- robed woman stared angrily at Linley and Bebe. Linley and Bebe looked at each other, having a bad feeling in their heart. “Boss, three behind us, two ahead of us. If the ﬁve attack us together, there’s no way we’ll escape.”

Linley and Bebe didn’t dare to move for the moment.

Because…as soon as they moved, most likely the bald youth and the big fellow would attack.

“Thank you, you two.” Benﬁeld laughed.

Just now, the bald youth had blocked Linley and Bebe. Clearly, this made him feel as though he had been given face, but at the same time, Benﬁeld also felt rather puzzled. “This youth and this big fellow…I’ve never seen them before. When did these two experts suddenly appear?” The movement speed the bald youth had displayed just now had caused Benﬁeld to feel amazed.”

“Hey, Benﬁeld, you got some problems with your brain.” The bald youth began to laugh.

Benﬁeld’s face couldn’t help but change.

“Just because I stopped Linley didn’t mean that it was because I’m helping you.” The bald youth mocked.

“Linley?” Benﬁeld and the other two looked towards Linley.

Up till now, they hadn’t known who Linley was.

“You know me?” Linley stared in astonishment towards the bald youth.

The bald youth began to roar with laughter. “Alas, it’s only been a few years, but you no longer recognize me, your teacher.” The bald youth let out an emotional sigh.

“Teacher?” Linley and Bebe were both stunned.

Suddenly, a violet light sprang out from the bald youth’s body, instantly stretching to thousand meters, encompassing Linley and Benﬁeld both. This powerful, yet familiar gravitational force caused a look of shock to appear on Linley’s face. “Can it be that you are…” In Linley’s mind, that adorable juvenile amethyst beast suddenly sprang to mind. That little juvenile beast who had called out in a high-pitched voice while pointing at and commanding countless amethyst beasts.

And Linley himself had, under the ‘torment’ of the juvenile amethyst beast, gained insight into the basics of the ‘Blackstone Space’.

“You!”

Benﬁeld frowned. “Reisgem!”

“Harhar…yes, it is me.” The bald youth laughed loudly. “What, are none of you able to recognize me when I’m in human form? Oh, it makes sense…my control over my soul is too powerful. I can completely hide my soul’s aura, and you aren’t able to sense it at all. It is understandable that you don’t recognize me. It is understandable.”

The bald youth waved his hand. “Benﬁeld, you turtle, hurry up and leave. Otherwise…I wouldn’t mind playing a bit with you.”

Benﬁeld stared at Linley and Bebe, then clenched his teeth.

“Let’s go.” Benﬁeld had no choice but to swallow his anger as he led his two companions to ﬂy away.

Linley and Bebe both let out sighs of relief.

Reisgem rubbed his bald head, glancing sideways at Linley. Shaking his head, he said, “You are so useless! You learned my supreme technique, but were forced into such a sorry state. You really lost the face of myself, your teacher!”

“Teacher?” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

“And you two really are stupid. If your power is weak, then in the Planar Battleﬁeld, you need to join forces. Didn’t you see how so many people are in groups of three or four?” Reisgem said casually. “Mm…how about this. The two of you, join my hunting squad. We’ll join forces and roam about the Planar Battleﬁeld. What do you say?”

“Join your squad?” Linley couldn’t help but look towards Reisgem, as well as the big, towering fellow behind him. “If you join us, in the future, we’ll evenly divide the military merits we gain into fourths. We men should be straightforward and keep things simple!” Reisgem puffed his chest out as he spoke, as though he wanted to show what a man he was.

Linley couldn’t help but laugh. Linley and Bebe exchanged glances, nodding slightly.

“We will join!” Linley said.

And so, Reisgem’s hunting squad was expanded from two to four. Their strength had increased tremendously now!

Chapter 25, Innate Divine Ability

Over the course of the past sixty one years in the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley had already gained a deep appreciation for the dangers it contained. If he wanted to simply rely on his own power to both acquire sufﬁcient military merits as well as protect his life, it would be incredibly difﬁcult! Now that Linley had joined Reisgem’s hunting squad, Linley actually felt relieved.

“That’s nice and straightforward! Let’s go. We’re preparing to ﬁnd a place to rest, ﬁrst.” Reisgem said with a laugh.

As for that tower-like ﬁgure next to Reisgem, he didn’t say a single word, just following behind.

“Reisgem became a Purgatory Commander long ago, and was able to frighten off Benﬁeld!” Linley felt very certain of Reisgem’s strength “In addition, according to the descriptions of Reisgem in Beirut’s book, Reisgem is a supreme expert who ranks in the top ﬁve of Purgatory Commanders.”

Reisgem’s reputation was quite extravagant.

Not only was he himself powerful, his mother was the Redbud Sovereign!

“Boss, in the future, things will be much simpler for us. We’ll probably be able to easily acquire military merits.” Bebe began to laugh, and with a ﬂip of his hand, he retrieved another red fruit, biting into it viciously. The nearby Reisgem sniffed the air, then turned to look at Bebe and immediately laughed. “Bebe, right? This fruit seems pretty appetizing. Give me one?”

“Take it.” Bebe, very magnanimously, pulled out another fruit and tossed it to Reisgem.

Reisgem’s eyes lit up. Accepting it, he immediately began to eat, then nodded in praise. “Crispy and ﬂavorful. Eating it is a pleasure. Thanks, bro.” As he spoke, Reisgem stretched his hand out, and a violet fruit appeared. “This is something I like to eat. It only exists in the Life Realm. Have a taste.”

Bebe and Reisgem, two people who both had childlike hearts, quickly began to grow close to each other.

Linley just smiled calmly while following them, as the tower- like big fellow just followed silently.

“Hey, Reisgem, I’m not just boasting. My innate divine ability, hmph, hmph.” Bebe actually started to brag in front of Reisgem.

“Yours is pretty powerful, but mine isn’t weak either.” Reisgem said very conﬁdently. “But Bebe, I have to warn you, no matter what, you can’t use that innate divine ability of yours against me…I heard from my mother that the innate divine ability of you Godeater Rats is absolutely supernatural. Only someone with a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact or who is a Highgod Paragon can resist it; otherwise, there is no way.”

“Don’t worry.” Bebe snickered. “We’re on the same team.”

Hearing this, Linley had a thought; it seemed as though Reisgem was rather afraid of Bebe’s innate divine ability. Reisgem took a bite of the fruit, then said helplessly, “I, Reisgem, am skilled in soul attacks! I don’t even fear the soul attacks of Highgod Paragons, but that ‘Godeater’ ability of yours, Bebe…there’s nothing I can do against it. That technique of yours is deﬁnitely the most powerful soul attack which a Highgod is capable of!”

Linley laughed as well. Reisgem’s words were very reasonable.

Bebe’s technique devoured the divine spark and destroyed the soul. It was indeed the most powerful of soul attacks.

“According to what my mother said, the innate divine abilities of divine beasts, in terms of fearsomeness…Bebe, you Godeater Rats are considered one of the top! As for the departed Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, and the rest of the Four Divine Beasts, their innate divine abilities were very terrifying as well! That Tree of Life from the Life Realm is also a monster…and the Abyssal Fruit Tree of the Netherworld, and…well, most of those extremely monstrous divine beasts all ended up becoming Sovereigns.” Reisgem said with a praising sigh. Divine beasts were divided into tiers of power as well.

Godeater Rats stood at the very peak of divine beasts, but so too did the Abyssal Fruit Tree. These divine beasts and their innate abilities were absolutely unnatural in their power.

“Hey, what is so powerful about those other divine beasts?

Tell me about them.” Bebe said excitedly.

Linley was intrigued as well.

Although they were walking on the surface of the battleﬁeld, the four were very much at ease. Linley and the tower-like ﬁgure kept a constant watch on their surroundings, but clearly, there weren’t many people who would be so ignorant as to try to attack their group of four.

“In terms of pure attack power, the ‘White Tiger’ of the Four Divine Beasts had an innate divine ability that was even more powerful than your ‘Godeater’ ability.” Reisgem said with a sigh. “My mother said that when the Four Divine Beasts joined forces and combined their four innate divine abilities, it was utterly monstrous! They were an extremely powerful force amongst the Sovereigns, but unfortunately, they have now all fallen. What a pity.”

Linley was stunned.

The innate divine ability of the ‘White Tiger’ of the Four Divine Beasts was even more powerful than the ‘Godeater’ ability? Unfortunately, he would never have the chance to see it. After all, not a single one of the successors to the Four Divine Beasts was an actual divine beast; they just carried the bloodlines of the divine beasts. Their innate divine abilities were only unleashed after undergoing Ancestral Baptisms, and despite that, were incomparable to those of their original ancestors.

“Even more powerful than we Godeater Rats?” Bebe muttered, clearly not willing to accept it.

Reisgem chortled. “There are 77 Sovereigns, and a number of them are divine beasts! In addition, these divine beasts are almost all unique ones. You’ll never see them ﬁght, but even if you do, there is no need for them to use their innate divine abilities. Of course you have no idea as to how terrifyingly powerful their innate divine abilities are. But of course…the combination of the four great innate divine abilities of the Four Divine Beasts is the most powerful divine ability of all. There is no question at all regarding this.”

While chatting casually, they arrived at a squat dwarf mountain.

“Hey, Hom, make a cave for us.” Reisgem said.

“Yes.” The big fellow ﬁnally spoke.

Linley couldn’t help but look over. He watched as the big, taciturn giant walked forward to the face of that small mountain, hundreds of meters high. The big fellow placed his giant, fan-sized hands atop the surface of the mountain, and instantly, the stone of the mountain seemed to turn to liquid, slowly ﬂowing outwards.

In the blink of an eye… A square cave had appeared, and the walls of the cave even had some patterned carvings.

“What sort of technique is this?” Linley and Bebe were stupeﬁed.

“Don’t be so shocked.” Reisgem laughed delightedly, then strode inwards, with the big fellow following Reisgem into the cave.

“This big fellow is both mysterious and powerful.” Linley sighed mentally in praise. In addition, Linley had never seen anything in Beirut’s book regarding this big fellow.

“Whoosh!

Shortly after they entered the cave, a stone board actually slammed down at the entrance, completely sealing it off from the outside world.

The insides of the cave had actually been divided into several rooms, as well as a large living room.

“What do you think? Stunned by the technique of Hom, eh?” Reisgem laughed as he sat down on a stone bench within the living room. “Let me make the formal introductions. Hom’s full name is Reihom Stonebreaker [Lei’hong]. He’s my good friend, and a trusted Emissary of my mother. Don’t be fooled by his silence; he’s quite clear-minded about things.”

A rare hint of a smile appeared on the face of the big, tower- like fellow.

Reihom Stonebreaker?

Linley glanced at him, then laughed and said, “Linley Baruch.”

“Hello, Linley.” Reihom’s voice thundered out, seeming to thrum and reverberate in that giant chest.

“Haha, from today forward, the power of our hunting squad will have increased dramatically.” Reisgem excitedly slapped the table. “Bebe, your innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, is deﬁnitely the sharpest attack our squad possesses! Linley, how about your own innate divine ability? What percentage of the power of the Azure Dragon’s original innate divine ability does it possess?”

Linley said with a calm laugh, “I can’t give you percentages. All my innate divine ability can do is to make time move tens of times slower for the enemy.”

“Good. Haha, wonderful!” Reisgem excitedly rose to his feet, his eyes glowing with violet light.

“Formidable.” The big, towering fellow rumbled in praise as well.

“Linley, with this technique of yours, our hunting squad is going to be much more powerful.” Reisgem was very excited. Reisgem then grumbled unhappily, “This really pisses me off, actually. Over the years, Reihom and I encountered quite a few commanders, but they weren’t able to beat us and so they immediately ran away. Even when I use my Amethyst Space, if they wholeheartedly focus on ﬂeeing, I’m unable to stop them. But if, at the critical moment, you were to use your innate divine ability on them, and then Reihom attacks, then we’ll deﬁnitely be able to kill the target.”

Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

He and Bebe both had extremely powerful innate divine abilities. Their only weakness was…their own, personal level of strength was rather lacking. Their attack power and defense power was insufﬁcient. But after joining this squad, each made up for what the other lacked.

“Haha…with the two of you! Our hunting squad will be able to dominate this Planar Battleﬁeld! If anyone dares gets close to us, into the range of that innate divine ability of yours, Linley, they will be ﬁnished.” Reisgem was very happy. Actually, originally, he cared more about Bebe’s innate divine ability; it was that, combined with the fact that he had a pre-existing relationship with Linley, that made him extend the invitation.

But now, he discovered that Linley’s innate divine ability was deﬁnitely the most superlative of supreme support abilities here on the Planar Battleﬁeld.

The Planar War would go on for nearly a thousand years. Linley’s group was in no rush. They stayed in the cave for three days before heading out, and during these three days, Linley also learned from Reisgem a few things regarding the commanders of the Planar Battleﬁeld.

“How many commanders would possibly dare to roam about the Planar Battleﬁeld as they please? Only those with enough power would dare do a thing; otherwise, it would be lunacy.”

“As for the weaker commanders, all of them are incredibly crafty. Many of them hide, not daring to reveal themselves, and rely on Deathgod Golems to scout. Upon encountering weak opponents, they’ll ﬁght; upon encountering strong ones, they won’t come out.” “But of course, most form small squads of perhaps two, three, or even four or ﬁve. The most important thing in a squad is…mutual trust. Otherwise, if the squadmates begins to ﬁght amongst themselves, that would be disastrous.”

“Linley, Bebe, our target here in the Planar Battleﬁeld is other squads! As for lone travelers? Heh heh. We won’t be able to kill the powerful ones, while the weak ones will be hiding and not dare reveal themselves. It will be very hard to kill one of them. It is best we engage in group battles against other squads. That will be more exciting, and also make it easier for us to gain badges.”

Reisgem and Linley discussed quite a few things, and Linley now understood that their earlier strategy of hiding and ambushing was a very low efﬁciency strategy. This was because virtually everyone who dared to travel about alone was exceedingly powerful. Fortunately, Bebe had been able to use his innate divine ability to kill Lancelot! Otherwise, Linley wouldn’t have even a single badge.

Linley, Bebe, Reisgem, and the silent Reihom continued to move forward. “Haha, there are very few people who know what the four of us look like. This will make it easier for us to catch some big ﬁsh.” Reisgem chortled. “Linley, once the enemy reaches a certain distance from us, your sole mission…will be to use your innate divine ability and make it impossible for him to ﬂee for a period of time. The killing part? Leave that to us.”

“Understood.” Linley let out a calm laugh.

Linley had to admit, his soul attack, amongst commander- level experts, could only be considered ordinary. When Linley was ﬁghting alongside Bebe, they used a similar strategy.

“It’s hard to ﬁnd people though.” Bebe stared at the surroundings and muttered.

The Planar Battleﬁeld was always so dark and cold. Raising his head, Linley looked at the multicolored spatial tears in the sky. That cold, howling wind swept through the battleﬁeld as the four of them stealthily advanced. They didn’t hide, nor did they use Deathgod Golems; they just walked straight across. Linley frowned.

“Reisgem, I think we’d best split up and maintain some distance from each other. Otherwise, if the four of us are always together, most likely the other commanders will not dare approach us and stay far away.” Linley said.

“Split up? Then how would we coordinate?” Reisgem asked.

Linley laughed. “How about this. The two of us will divide into two squads. Bebe and I will separate, but the two of us have connected souls and will be able to sense each other’s presences. Even if we can’t see each other, we will still be able to ﬁnd each other.”

“Good idea.” Reisgem nodded repeatedly.

“Then…right, Linley, you follow me. Reihom, you go with Bebe. Our two squads will maintain a distance of three kilometers. If battle begins, we’ll be able to quickly cross this short distance.” Reisgem made the arrangements, and Linley and Bebe had no objections. They immediately split up.

Linley and Bebe were able to sense each other’s locations, and thus, they were both able to sense the direction the other was headed.

Less than half a day after they separated…

“Boss, we found a target.” Bebe’s surprised, delighted voice rang out in Linley’s mind.

Chapter 26, The First Battle

Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.

“Reisgem, they found a target!” Linley sent through divine sense, while transforming into a blur that ﬂew at high speed towards Bebe’s location. “A target?” Reisgem was startled and delighted as well. His speed also increased, and he was actually a level faster than Linley. The distance of three kilometers was crossed in the twinkling of an eye.

But by the time Linley and Reisgem arrived, they discovered that Bebe and Reihom were just standing there.

“Bebe, what’s going on? The target?” Linley had a guess as to what happened.

“That person was too crafty. As soon as I saw him, he immediately turned tail and ﬂed instead of ﬁghting back!” Bebe said helplessly, a bitter look on his face, while the nearby Reihom said in a deep voice, “The young master and I encountered this person not too long ago. As soon as this person saw me, he was so frightened he instantly ﬂed.” “We encountered him before?” Reisgem shook his head. “Forget it. He can just consider himself lucky.”

“As I see it, Reihom, you should slightly change your body. Your appearance is simply too easily distinguishable.” Linley said with a laugh. The big fellow nodded slightly, then with a sound of acknowledgment, began to shrink from being a giant of four meters in height to an ordinary person two meters tall.

Reisgem winked and laughed, “Hey, Hom, in this shape, it’s going to be quite hard to sit on your shoulders.

Linley immediately thought back to how, when he had ﬁrst seen Reisgem, Reisgem had been sitting on the giant’s shoulders.

“Reisgem, let’s continue to head out.” Linley said with a laugh. “Right.” Reisgem nodded, then gritted his teeth. “Hmph. Hom and I have been in the Planar Battleﬁeld for many years now, but we only have a single gold badge. This time, we have to get some more.” Reisgem and Reihom had both come from the Infernal Realm, and so belonged to the side of the Divine Darkness Plane.

They, too, had crossed the Stellar River and arrived on this side.

“You guys only have one as well?” Bebe couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hmph, if I had your innate divine ability, I would’ve killed quite a few commanders already.” Reisgem said with a sniff. “Enough, let’s head out. Linley, the two of us will go this way!” Their forces separated once again. Because the geography of the Planar Battleﬁeld was varied, with tall grass and hills everywhere, at a distance of three kilometers, it was generally not possible to see someone else.

“Whoooosh.” A cold wind howled drearily, and two ﬁgures advanced, one in front, one in the back. The leader was a white-robed man with long jade hair that drooped all the way to his waist. He had an astonishingly, breathtakingly beautiful face, and his skin was almost crystalline and translucent, as though he were a jade statue. In addition, in the center of his forehead, there was the seal of a crescent moon.

He quietly walked, casually glancing at his surroundings, as though this Planar Battleﬁeld was his garden.

Behind him was a female warrior dressed in armor.

“Milord, should we be looking for a place to rest? All of those commanders have hidden themselves deeply. When they see you come, milord, all of them are so terriﬁed they all scamper away.” The brown-haired female warrior said with a laugh.

The jade-haired, white-robed handsome youth strolled forward and said, “Fine, then let’s just look for a place up ahead to rest. Mm? It seems as though we don’t need to be in a hurry to rest. We have some prey.” The white-robed youth’s lips crooked upwards, and the crescent moon in his forehead began to glow with green light.

Linley’s group had been traveling for half a month now. Although they had encountered a few targets, when they took a close look, they found that the targets were just Deathgod Golems. They ran into ﬁve Deathgod Golems, but not a single person who had dared to reveal himself. But Linley’s group wasn’t discouraged at all.

After all, there were only so many commanders to begin with. Some were in the army camps, while others were in hiding. There weren’t many who dared to roam around outside.

“Those supreme experts…all of them are indeed almost ﬂawless.” Linley chatted with Reisgem quite often over the course of their journey.

Only now did Linley realize…that Reisgem actually only had a single Sovereign artifact; a Sovereign weapon! Only, Reisgem naturally possessed an extremely powerful body and powerful soul. Although his body was inferior to Bebe’s, his soul was far, far more powerful!

Reisgem’s true body had 108 spikes atop it, and the Amethyst Mountains, which contained vast quantities of amethysts, also had 108 caves.

Linley’s guess was…“The Redbud Sovereign and the Amethyst Mountains deﬁnitely have a unique connection to each other. Reisgem is pretty much the same! I can understand why his soul is so powerful. After all, the Amethyst Mountains are a place where countless amethysts are generated.” The Amethyst Mountains also had a large number of amethyst beasts, whose bodies were exceedingly tough. Naturally, Reisgem’s body was also tough.

On the whole, Reisgem was very balanced!

Even if he didn’t have a Sovereign artifact, he would still be very powerful. Combined with a Sovereign artifact, he was able to dominate the Planar Battleﬁeld. “Those Sovereign’s Emissaries who acquire Sovereign artifacts use them to cover up their ﬂaws.” Linley understood this principle.

While Linley and Reisgem made their way through the Planar Battleﬁeld, staring at their surroundings and looking for a target, Linley suddenly stared towards the front…up ahead, two ﬁgures had appeared, one in front, the other behind. The two had discovered Linley and Reisgem as well, and they simply stood there fearlessly, staring at them.

“Oh, them?” Reisgem laughed.

“Occluar [Ao’ke’lu’wei’er] of the Life Realm?” Linley was startled.

Occluar was the genius of the ‘Divine Moon Elves’, and one of the highly ranked supreme experts of the Life Realm. He trained in the Edicts of Life, and was skilled in soul attacks. He could be considered a perfect counter for Linley! “Bebe, we have our target. Hurry over.” Linley hurriedly send through the soul bond.

Linley and Bebe were able to communicate at a very great distance.

Even here in the Planar Battleﬁeld, where divine sense would only stretch for a hundred meters, he was still able to easily chat with Bebe at a distance of many kilometers. It must be understood that when Linley was not even a Saint yet and was trapped within the Radiant Temple of the Radiant Church, he was still able to communicate spiritually with Bebe. At that time, Linley wasn’t even capable of making his spiritual sense leave his body. This was one of the beneﬁts of a spirit bond.

The Planar Battleﬁeld. Atop the desolate earth.

Linley and Reisgem on one side, Occluar and his companion on the other. The two stared at each other. They paused slightly, but in the next instant, the two sides attacked without hesitation! “Linley, use your innate divine ability against that woman!” Reisgem sent out excitedly, while at the same time, without hesitating at all, Reisgem transformed into a streak of violet light, shooting towards the front.

“Understood.”

Linley hurried forward as well, ﬂying towards the enemies at top speed.

“Hmph. They are looking for death.” Occluar, seeing the two charge towards him, couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. He just stood there, waiting for them to come. He had planned to attack them, only because he was afraid they would ﬂee. But seeing Linley and Reisgem attack, he naturally was more than happy to just wait. Wouldn’t it be excellent to just sit here and wait for them to come and be killed instead?

Reisgem was in front, Linley was behind.

When Linley was at a distance of 150 meters from the enemies, Linley’s eyes suddenly ﬂashed with azure-golden light, while at the same time, an enormous coiling Azure Dragon Phantom that was a thousand meters long appeared behind Linley. That Azure Dragon head hovered above Linley, staring at its target…

The brown-haired woman!

“Eh?” The white-robed elﬁn youth, Occluar, was startled. “Azure Dragon clan?” He now realized that Linley was using this technique against his servant.

However, he still disdainfully stood there. “The innate divine ability of the Azure Dragon clan can at most impact the passage of time. I simply need to make it so that they won’t be able to draw close for a short period of time. They can forget about harming my subordinates.” The white-robed elﬁn man’s body blurred, and he came attacking towards Reisgem!

Reisgem cracked his lips into a grin.

“Down!” “BANG!” A violet light exploded forth from Reisgem, creating an enormous sphere of hundreds of meters across. A terrifyingly powerful gravity instantly took effect on the body of the elﬁn man, Occluar. Occluar suddenly felt as though his body had become countless times heavier, and he couldn’t help but sink downwards.

As for Reisgem, he waved his hand out…

“Swish!”

A blurry light shot out, striking towards the brown-haired female warrior. The brown-haired female warrior seemed to have just recovered from the ﬁeld of slow time. Faced with this attack, she wasn’t able to resist at all, and the blurry light shot directly into her body. The brown-haired female warrior’s body trembled slightly, and then collapsed to the ground.

“Whap!” A white badge ﬂoated out from her body. “So she was this weak.” Reisgem shook his head disdainfully.

“Reisgem!” The elﬁn man, Occluar, stood there staring coldly at Reisgem, his eyes seemingly ﬁlled with rage. “You killed my servant…what, do you think you are able to overcome me?”

“No, no, I don’t think I can.”

Reisgem chortled and just stood there, facing the elﬁn man. Reisgem knew how strong Occluar was. If Linley and Bebe weren’t with him, there was no way he would be able to kill Occluar. At their respective levels…they wouldn’t be able to really do anything to each other.

Occluar was only certain of who Reisgem was after Reisgem spread out his Amethyst Space.

Otherwise, if he had known in advance, Occluar would’ve retreated long ago. “Although I don’t think I can beat you, today, I really want that gold badge of yours, so…sorry.” Reisgem chortled.

Occluar’s face sank, but then he snickered as well. “Oh, so you want to kill me and get my gold badge? By relying on who? That Azure Dragon punk behind you?” Occluar didn’t care at all about the death of his servant; after all, he had only brought the servant to the Planar Battleﬁeld to attend to him. For battle, he himself was sufﬁcient.

Occluar looked carefully at Linley, as though wanting to tell how strong Linley was. After all, it seemed as though no one within the Azure Dragon clan had ever been able to threaten his life.

“No, I don’t have that power.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Linley knew as well that this Occluar was far more powerful than that elﬁn Elder of the eight great clans who had nearly killed Delia when he had sent her into that coma. In addition, Occluar had a defensive Sovereign artifact. “Boss, we’re here.” Bebe sent mentally.

“Wait for your chance, then make your move.” Linley sent.

“Reisgem, I don’t have the time to waste with you. I’m leaving now.” Occluar let out a cold snort, then turned to leave.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Two ﬁgures landed on the path behind him, one tall ﬁgure and one short ﬁgure. It was Reihom and Bebe.

Occluar’s eyes narrowed. As he saw it, there were far too few people capable of killing him. He didn’t believe the four of them were capable of it. He couldn’t help but grow rather angry as he let out a low snort. “Reisgem, there’s no point in us battling. Your behavior, however, makes me very angry. Today, let’s have a little ﬁght. Let’s see if your soul attack is stronger, or if mine is.” Linley’s face changed.

He was able to see quite clearly how suddenly, two translucent wings suddenly appeared from Occluar’s back, while at the same time, a dazzling green light shot out from the center of his forehead, instantly transforming into sixteen green crescent moons. In a place as dark as this Planar Battleﬁeld, the light of these green crescent moons was quite dazzling to behold.

The sixteen green crescent moons shot out in a devilishly arcing line, striking towards Reisgem. Clearly, Occluar only considered Reisgem to be a threat, and didn’t care about the other three at all. This wasn’t his fault; he didn’t fear any material attacks, and as for soul attacks…

That was his specialty. What was there to fear? Over the course of countless years, he had never suffered in a competition in the soul.

“Hey, elf punk, are you looking down at me?” Occluar didn’t even look at Bebe, but suddenly, from the corner of his eyes, he saw an enormous illusion appear. He couldn’t help but turn to look, and as he did, the formerly completely conﬁdent Occluar had his face instantly turn white and his eyes become full of terror. “How…how can this be? That’s…”

The enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat had appeared behind Bebe.

Innate divine ability – Godeater!

“Heh heh, even I can’t block it. You? Block it? Go die.” Reisgem, seeing this, laughed. He felt all the more certain that having Linley and Bebe join forces with him was an extremely wise decision.

With the Godeater technique having emerged, Occluar instantly slumped to the ground.

“Clink!” A gold badge fell out of his body, and a beautiful set of green armor also emerged, falling out of Occluar.

The ﬁrst battle of their hunting squad…was a complete success!

Chapter 27, A Change

Occluar’s corpse just lay there on the desolate earth.

“He died!” Linley sighed in his heart. “Occluar was an expert on the level of Reisgem. Even Highgod Paragons would ﬁnd it hard to kill him. Aside from a Sovereign acting against him, generally speaking, it would take a group of experts to kill an expert like him. But Bebe’s innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’…” Linley couldn’t help but look towards Bebe.

At this moment, Bebe was by the side of the corpse of the elﬁn Occluar. He let out a snort. “You actually ignored me!”

“Haha, Bebe, you really are the perfect counter to soul specialists who aren’t at the Paragon level yet!” Reisgem laughed while walking over, slapping his arm around Bebe’s shoulders. “It seems we are a perfect match! Your soul attacks are number one, and while my material attacks aren’t number one, they are still at the very top. With us joining forces, who can stop us?” Reisgem glanced sideways at the corpse on the ground, then snickered. “Hey, experts, experts…this is what happens. Now that his most powerful body is dead, even if he has divine clones remaining, how much value could they possibly hold?”

Right at this moment…

“Hmph!” A cold snort rang out. Reisgem suddenly moved, transforming into a violet blur which streaked across the skies.

“What’s going on?” Linley hurriedly turned to look as well, only to see Reisgem chasing towards a certain direction, with a black blur ﬂeeing from him. Linley couldn’t help but feel shocked. “There was someone else nearby? It seems just now, I was so focused on Occluar that I didn’t even notice that someone was snooping nearby.”

Linley carefully watched Reisgem pursue and attack the ﬂeeing person.

Mid-pursuit, Reisgem suddenly emanated a violet light from his body, which formed into his Amethyst Space. The ﬂeeing black ﬁgure immediately began to move much slower, after having been caught by it.

“Swish!”

A violet light shot out from Reisgem’s hand, shooting forward like a meteor, so fast that the black blur wasn’t able to dodge at all. “Crackle…” The violet light instantly traversed the less than hundred meters of distance that separated Reisgem and the black blur. The nearby space began to ripple like water, and some faint spatial cracks could be seen as well. With a ‘bang’ sound, the violet light drove into the black blur’s body, and it immediately exploded, sending fragments shooting out in every direction, while that violet light ﬁnally solidiﬁed.

This was a fairly short, 1.5 meter long cavalry lance that was completely covered with a dark violet color.

But of course, it could also be used as a javelin, or for close quarters combat. “A Sovereign weapon!” Linley understand that this was Reisgem’s one and only Sovereign weapon. “When Reisgem throws this as a javelin, the power is as terrifying as this! It created spatial fractures!”

Linley clearly remembered how very minute fractures in space had appeared upon the lance being thrown.

This was the ﬁrst time Linley had ever seen someone capable of causing spatial cracks appear, here in the Planar Battleﬁeld! “This Reisgem trains in the Edicts of Destruction, and his understanding in its profound mysteries is formidable to begin with. He is also very strong as well. Matching that with a Sovereign weapon…it truly is as he said; his material attacks, amongst commanders, might not be the best, but it is at the very top.”

Linley now completely understood how powerful Reisgem was.

Soul attacks and material attacks; he approached perfection in both. If one had to point out a weakness…most likely, it was that he was a bit afraid of Bebe. Bebe’s ‘Godeater’ technique was the perfect counter to him, unless Reisgem went and acquired a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Unfortunately, although his mother was a Sovereign, she couldn’t just give him another one; he needed to acquire more military merits.

“Motherf*cking…it’s a Deathgod Golem!” Reisgem burst into a torrent of curses as he walked over.

“It is indeed a Deathgod Golem. No point in being angry.” Linley said. “Who knows where the person behind it is hiding. After realizing how powerful you are, he probably ﬂed long ago.”

“Each time I see a ‘target’, kill it, and ﬁnd out afterwards that it was a Deathgod Golem, I feel pissed.”

Reisgem pointed towards the gold badge on the ground with one ﬁnger. “There’s only a single gold badge, while there are four of us. How should we divide it, everyone?”

Linley and Bebe couldn’t help but look at each other.

A commander badge!

To Linley, every single commander badge represented that he would be able to save another one of his family or friends! Linley deeply desired to acquire this commander badge, but Linley also understood that since the four of them had set up this four person hunting squad, they had to abide by the rules of it. He couldn’t demand that others give up their spoils of war to him as well.

“Linley, what do you two think?” Reisgem looked over.

As Reisgem saw it, there was no need for him to divide between himself and Reihom, as the two were very close to each other. Although Bebe and Linley had just joined the hunting squad, although they were acquaintances, they actually didn’t have a very deep relationship yet, and so he couldn’t just make a casual decision.

“Let’s do as we said originally.” Linley said with a laugh. “The four of us will divide any rewards equally. However, clearly, we only have a single gold badge here right now. How about this? Reisgem, you and Reihom will each have one share, while Bebe and I will have one share. I imagine you two won’t have any objections to this, right?”

“Of course not.” Reisgem laughed as well.

Reisgem and Reihom wouldn’t quibble over military merits, much like how Linley and Bebe wouldn’t either.

“As for this commander badge, either of our two sides can take it. If you take it this time, then we’ll take the next one. If we take it this time, then next time, you’ll take it.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

“Fine then.” Reisgem very straightforwardly reached out with his arm, snatched up the commander badge, then tossed it to Linley. “You two just joined our squad, so we’ll let you take the ﬁrst one. The next commander badge we get is ours though.” Linley accepted it, not standing on ceremony, and laughed while nodding. “Fine. Next one is yours.”

Linley clenched the gold badge. He couldn’t help but feel excited in his heart. “Yet another one!” Linley wanted to rescue his father, Yale, George, and Dixie, who had also died an unjust death. Dixie was Delia’s one and only elder brother, after all. As for those who had died normal deaths, who had died deaths with no regrets, Linley didn’t see the need to make them regain their memories.

After all, the likes of Uncle Hillman had lived for centuries, with a full house of children and grandchildren. They had lived carefree lives, then died of old age.

Since they had died with no regrets, why disturb them in their rest?

But as for Yale, George, and his own father ‘Hogg’, they had all died miserable, unjust deaths. “Linley, it’s just a commander badge. Is it really worth you having such a look on your face?” The nearby Reisgem couldn’t help but smirk while speaking.

“Uh.” Linley awoke from his trance. He immediately laughed, then collected the gold badge. “I was just thinking about a few things.”

The nearby Bebe sighed emotionally as well, “Reisgem, you’ve come here to get enough badges so as to trade for a Sovereign artifact, but although the Boss and I also have come to acquire enough badges, our purpose is different. You don’t understand how important these badges are to my Boss.”

“Oh?” Reisgem immediately grew surprised. “What’s so important?”

Bebe immediately began to chat in secret with Reisgem, while Linley just shook his head and laughed.

“Reisgem, what should we do with this Sovereign artifact?” Linley said.

“What should we do? Just toss it there.” Reisgem said.

Linley and Bebe were both stunned.

“Toss it?” Bebe said, startled.

Reisgem gave it a casual kick, then snorted. “Of course. What, do you think we should take it with us? The Sovereign will come to reclaim it eventually, anyways. There’s no point to taking it with us. In addition, Occluar clearly had other divine clones outside, so there’s no way for us to use the Sovereign artifact either. There’s no point to bringing it.”

Linley and Bebe, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but trade glances. Still, they had to admit that Reisgem’s words were reasonable.

“Let’s go. Keep moving.” Reisgem said with a laugh. “Given the power of our hunting squad, haha…what have we to fear, here in the Planar Battleﬁeld? Haha.” Linley couldn’t help but to laugh as well. Their four man hunting squad once more headed out, dividing once again into two squads, traveling at a distance of three kilometers or so.

Next to a short hill within the Planar Battleﬁeld.

A golden-haired, black-robed man had a look of astonishment on his face. “Who would have imagined that the news which has been circulating amongst the commanders about Beirut having come is false! The person who used that innate divine ability isn’t Beirut; it is someone else. Aside from Beirut, there’s actually someone else capable of that technique! This is terrible. And, by the look of it, that youngster with the straw hat is completely unrestrained and has no taboos, unlike Beirut who cares greatly about his status.”

The person who had used the Deathgod Golem and had seen Bebe kill Occluar was this man.

“I have to tell my friends about this news!” The golden-haired man gritted his teeth, immediately ﬂeeing.

Most of the commanders in the Planar Battleﬁeld, especially those who were within the same alliance, had some degree of pre-existing relationships with each other. They would all share some important news with each other. For example, when Bebe and Linley had arrived in the Planar Battleﬁeld, that commander in the headquarters had planned to join forces with Linley and Bebe, and also provide them with some news. Only, because he didn’t recognize the two of them, he didn’t do it.

The news that the person who used the innate divine ability ‘Godeater’ was a youngster who wore a straw hat rather than Beirut quickly spread through the commanders at an astonishing speed.

At the sides of the Stellar Sea, within an alliance base. Within an estate formed from elemental essence, a man dressed in sky blue robes was walking forward with large strides towards the gates. “Milord.”

The guards at the gates immediately opened it. They all knew…that this person was a commander-level expert and a good friend of their own lord.

“Bray [Bu’lei], why did you return?” A red-robed woman within the courtyard was drinking some wine. She smiled as she glanced at the blue-robed man who had walked in. “Didn’t you go out to kill a few commanders, so as to acquire a few extra badges?”

“Not anymore. I didn’t expect that yet another variable came into play.” The blue-robed man let out a snort, then sat down. Grabbing a bottle of wine, he raised his head and chugged it down.

“Variable?” The red-robed woman was puzzled.

The blue-robed man grumbled unhappily, “Wasn’t there a rumor prior to this that Beirut had come? If it really was Beirut who had come, I wouldn’t be afraid; Beirut and I have met before, and we can be considered to have something of a relationship. If I encounter him, he wouldn’t act against me. In addition, someone as proud and arrogant as Beirut generally wouldn’t lower himself to kill ordinary commanders, so long as they didn’t offend him.

“It’s precisely because I was under this impression that I went roaming about the Planar Battleﬁeld! But who would have imagined that just now, a good friend of mine sent me the news that the person who used the ‘Godeater’ innate divine ability wasn’t Beirut. It was a youngster wearing a straw hat!” The blue-robed man shook his head. “Forget it. I don’t have a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact. It’s best if I don’t run around outside wildly. If I encounter that youngster, I’ll die a damnably unfair death!”

Hearing this, the red-robed woman understood.

“There’s a second divine beast, ‘Godeater Rat’?” The red- robed woman also understand how grave this news was.

Amongst Highgods, there were many people who understood how important it was to gain a high degree of insight into the soul, and there were many who were extremely skilled in soul attacks and defenses. Additionally, even amongst Sovereign artifacts, soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts were the hardest to forge. Generally speaking, even if a Sovereign was to give an Emissary an artifact, it would only very rarely be a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact.

Thus, soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts were exceedingly rare.

Additionally, many commanders were extremely conﬁdent in their soul defense abilities. For example, the likes of Reisgem and Occluar would still be able to hold on, if just barely, against the soul attack of even a Highgod Paragon. As they saw it, there was no point to acquiring a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. It was thus better to acquire a different type of Sovereign artifact.

But after Beirut suddenly rose to prominence, many people learned…that the most terrifying soul attack amongst Highgods wasn’t that of a Highgod Paragon; rather, it was Beirut’s innate divine ability. But given the status which Beirut possessed, he would rarely lower himself to go massacre ordinary commanders.

Thus, no one was worried about him.

But now, yet another person had emerged who was capable of the ‘Godeater’ ability, a person no one knew. Those experts who were neither Highgod Paragons nor had soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts…they now began to worry.

They no longer dared to conﬁdently wander outside as they previously had. Those who did go outside hid, using Deathgod Golems to scout for them.

“Haha…the appearance of this youngster…” The red-robed woman began to laugh. “There weren’t many commanders who dared to freely wander the Planar Battleﬁeld to begin with. Now, with people like you bowing out as well…most likely, the only people wandering the Planar Battleﬁeld will either belong to extremely powerful squads or be truly invincible, unbeatable ﬁgures.” “Forget it. Wait for the ﬁnal battle. I’ll acquire the military merits during the ﬁnal battle. If push comes to shove, I can even wait for the next Planar War to ﬁnish acquiring enough military merits. Where on earth did this youngster come from? After leaving the Planar Battleﬁeld, I’ll need to make some investigations.” The blue-robed man said with a sigh.

Chapter 28, Five Hundred Years

In the desolate wilderness, Linley and Reisgem, one tall, the other short, were advancing side by side.

“What’s going on? There’s almost no one around.” Reisgem couldn’t help but grumble and curse, his eyes ﬁlled with anger as he looked around. “It’s one thing for those weaker commanders to be hiding, but those fairly powerful ones… when Reihom and I were together, we ran into quite a few of them. But now, all of them are missing.”

The nearby Linley was silent.

Linley was beginning to feel frantic as well. He couldn’t help but look about at the battleﬁeld, but there was nothing to see, not a single person. “The Planar Battleﬁeld seems to have suddenly grown much more barren. There’s not many people visible now. When Bebe and I used Deathgod Golems to lure people in, we still discovered a few people.” Linley couldn’t understand either what was going on either. It had been three years since they had killed that elven male, ‘Occluar’. It had been three full years, but Linley’s group hadn’t acquired another gold badge!

It wasn’t that Linley’s group had grown soft-hearted; they didn’t ﬁnd any targets they could attack at all!

During these three years, Linley’s had encountered quite a few ‘people’, but all of them were either Deathgod Golems or truly supreme experts whom the four wouldn’t be able to handle at all. But of course, there was also one time when they ran into another squad. That time, Linley’s group had prepared to attack, because there were only two of them.

But just as they were about to attack and to call Bebe to come over, they discovered…that three more helpers rushed over to join the enemy squad.

This squad was actually a ﬁve person squad! And, in terms of power, two were on the same level as Reisgem. Once the battle began, perhaps they might be able to kill one or two of them, but their own side would also lose one or two people. It wasn’t worth it.

“Linley.” Reisgem suddenly said amusedly. “Hypothetically, if we were to be unable to acquire any commander badges during the remainder of the duration of this Planar War, then Reihom and I really would have suffered a loss! After all, we gave you the ﬁrst commander badge.”

Linley was stunned. All he could do was let out an awkward laugh.

“I’m kidding.” Reisgem pulled out a violet fruit, then began to eat it. “How could we not acquire any more commander badges? Hmph…if push comes to shove, we can wait for the ﬁnal battle of the Planar War. The four of us will join forces to kill a few more enemy commanders. Given our power, it won’t be too hard if we join forces during the chaos of that battle and take advantage of some people.” Reisgem was clearly quite conﬁdent.

Linley nodded slightly as well. Although he now had two commander badges, he was still some ways off from his target.

“Boss, we have a target!” Bebe’s voice suddenly echoed in Linley’s mind. Linley’s eyes lit up, and he grew excited.

“Reisgem, we have a target.” Linley immediately ﬂew towards Bebe’s direction.

“Oh!” Reisgem hurriedly ﬂew after him as well.

But by the time Linley and Reisgem got there, they discovered that Bebe and Reihom were standing in front of a black-robed ﬁgure, whose arms were already torn off, revealing a metallic color beneath his shattered shoulder blades. Bebe, seeing Linley and Reisgem arrive, turned and said resignedly, “Boss, it is a Deathgod Golem.”

Linley and Reisgem were rather disappointed, but they had already been prepared for this. After all, the number of times this had occurred over the past three years was far too many.

“This Deathgod Golem actually isn’t ﬂeeing.” Linley began to laugh.

“Why ﬂee? It won’t be able to escape anyhow. It’s just a Deathgod Golem, after all. I have plenty of these toys. In addition, I’m quite curious about the second Godeater Rat to appear in the countless planes of the universe.” The metallic golem spoke out, and then looked towards Bebe with curiosity. “Might I ask, what is your relationship with Beirut?”

Linley was startled.

How did others know that Bebe was a Godeater Rat?

“How did you know?” Bebe said, surprised. The Deathgod Golem said, “Of course I know. You used your innate divine ability several times, causing that Godeater Rat illusion to appear. Quite a few people have seen it already. At ﬁrst, everyone thought it was Beirut, but afterwards, they learned that it was a youngster who wore a straw hat. When I saw you wearing a straw hat, I naturally recognized you.”

“Ah.” Bebe was rather stupeﬁed. So it was his straw hat which had betrayed him.

“Now I get it! No wonder they all went into hiding and didn’t dare to show themselves.” Reisgem said angrily.

“Of course nobody dares to show themselves. Everyone knows what Beirut’s temperament is like; even if he came in, we wouldn’t be too worried. But this youngster who no one knows is also capable of that technique…nobody wants to treat their own life and future like a joke.” The Deathgod Golem said casually.

Once one was hit by that technique, one would be ﬁnished. Even if they had divine clones in the outside world, they would still topple down from their honored position at the peak of the world of Deities.

“Hurry up and f*ck off. I won’t wreck your Deathgod Golem.” Reisgem said irritably. “This really pisses me off. It’s hard for me to locate these people, but I didn’t expect all of them would hide away. They really are cowards!”

It wasn’t cowardice, though; it was caution.

The various commanders had all expended countless amounts of effort to reach their current levels of power. Even if they didn’t acquire any military merits in this Planar War, they could still go participate in the next one. After all, it occurred every trillion years, with ﬁve battles each time. To them, military merits were secondary concerns; their lives were the most important!

Once their most powerful clones died, they would be ﬁnished. “What should we do now?” The normally taciturn Reihom knew that the situation looked bad as well.

“What can we do?” Reisgem chewed on his lips. “It was such a rare stroke of fortune for me to get Bebe’s assistance. I really wanted to dominate those people, but all of them went into hiding. Hmph…ﬁne, then. Let’s all ﬁnd a place to rest as well. After we are ﬁnished resting, when the ﬁnal battle occurs, we’ll all emerge and slaughter them viciously! We’ll acquire more military merits then.”

“That’s all we can do.” Bebe said resignedly.

Linley frowned slightly. Although other commanders might not care too much about how many military merits they acquired, as they could acquire more in the next Planar War, Linley had no time to waste. Linley had to acquire sufﬁcient military merits during this Planar War.

But, with so many people in hiding, what could he do? “As I see it, let’s go ﬁnd a place to rest while at the same time, use our Deathgod Golems to lure people close. If we can lure in one or two commanders, that’d be good.” Linley said.

“Right, makes sense. There are another eight centuries from now till the end of this Planar War. It really is possible for us to attract some people over the next eight centuries.” Reisgem nodded in approval.

“Alright, enough thinking about it then. Let’s go ﬁnd a place to rest.” Bebe was the ﬁrst to move forward.

Linley’s group casually selected a tall mountain. By relying on Reihom’s supreme technique, they set up a cave estate. Linley’s group of four thus began to live here peacefully. As for controlling the Deathgod Golem to attract people, this mission was handed over to Bebe and Reihom, while Reisgem completely focused on training.

As for Linley, naturally, he was more than happy to seize the opportunity to train hard. The Planar Battleﬁeld fell into a period of strange tranquility. Aside from a few rare squads of extremely powerful experts, virtually all of the other solitary commanders went into hiding. Most were waiting for the ﬁnal battle! Some were waiting to leave after the ﬁnal battle, while others were waiting to participate. Although the ﬁnal battle would be dangerous, if the commanders were cautious, they would have a survival rate much higher than that of ordinary soldiers.

Five hundred years silently slipped away peacefully!

The tall, desolate mountain. Within the quiet cave estate.

Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were seated next to each other, drinking wine, eating fruit, and chatting casually.

“Linley really is too hard-working in his training.” Reisgem couldn’t help but glance outside towards a distant courtyard, where Linley was currently seated in the meditative position. “It’s good to be hard working, but you have to take a rest.” As Reisgem spoke, he took a huge bite of the fruit. “My Boss? Of course he is hard-working when training. Naturally, his training speed will be fast as well.” Bebe said smugly.

The habitually taciturn Reihom gave a rare nod and said, “This Linley’s training speed really is astonishing.”

“It really is. Nearly four centuries ago, when Linley woke up, he said that he had already begun to completely fuse four profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. And how many years has this kid been training for? Just two thousand years. How many years have I been training for? I’ve only fused ﬁve profound mysteries, myself.” Reisgem said with a smirk.

Bebe just rubbed his nose, not saying a single thing.

In their four-person hunting squad, he was the only one who had no right to say a single thing when the topic of conversation was fusing profound mysteries.

Reisgem and Reihom had both fused ﬁve profound mysteries; naturally, though, this was related to the fact that they had been training for far too long a period of time. Linley had trained for just two thousand years, but had nearly fused four profound mysteries as well.

But him?

He hadn’t fused a single thing!

“Hmph. Hmph. My innate divine ability is powerful though.” This was how Bebe mentally consoled himself.

Right at this moment…

A terrifyingly powerful divine sense swept past their cave estate. Reisgem, Reihom and Bebe’s faces changed. Even the training Linley opened his eyes, staring towards the outside in amazement.

“Whoosh!” Reisgem and the other two immediately ﬂew to the outside courtyard.

“Someone was able to use his divine sense to investigate inside. How terrifying.” Reisgem said in a low voice.

“It is either a Soul Mutate expert or a Highgod Paragon.” Reihom said.

Linley was stunned as well. It must be understood that this cave estate was in the heart of this tall mountain. Even the corridor which led from the cave to the outside was a hundred meters long. For someone to sweep the cave estate with divine sense meant that the divine sense stretched to hundreds of meters. Linley had reﬁned countless amethysts, but his divine sense only stretched to a hundred meters.

At such a great distance…

There were only two possibilities. A Soul Mutate or a Highgod Paragon. Of course, a Sovereign could also use his own sense, but Linley’s group wouldn’t be able to sense it at all if that had happened. “Right!” Linley’s group of four emerged from the estate and looked towards the corridor that led to the outside world.

In the vast, empty corridor, there was a single ﬁgure who was walking in towards them. This person was dressed in a long white robe, had white hair, and white brows. His white brows were nearly vertical, and his eyes were extremely long and slanted, and seemed to shoot out a freezing light. Just by walking forward, this white-robed, white-browed man made others feel an unconscious veneration towards him.

“Him!” Linley’s face turned ugly.

This person had once roamed the Infernal Realm, and had been known as the ‘Bloodwind’ Fiend. The meaning of this nickname was that when the wind arose, blood would ﬂy into the air, and people would die.

“Bayer [Bei’e]! What are you doing here?” Reisgem frowned, and a violet light emerged from his body. “Oh, Reisgem.” The white-robed, white-browed man let out a calm chuckle.

Although Bayer had adventured through the Infernal Realm in the past, the many experts of the universe all believed that Bayer had come from the Divine Plane of Wind, and that he was one of the supreme, king-like ﬁgures of that plane. Because…this person had already reached the ‘Paragon’ level!

“What has a Highgod Paragon come for?” Linley felt rather nervous.

Highgod Paragons were truly frightening.

“I didn’t expect you’d come to the Planar Battleﬁeld as well, Bayer.” Reisgem said with a calm laugh.

“Originally, I had no plans to come here. The Planar Wars hold no meaning for me. However…I owed Occluar a favor.” This Bayer said calmly. “Occluar’s most powerful Life-type divine clone was killed by you, so he asked me to help him get revenge!” Bayer said calmly, “I don’t like owing favors! And so…I came to the Planar Battleﬁeld!”

The faces of Linley and the other three changed greatly.

So Bayer had actually come at the request of Occluar!

“You actually owed him a favor?” Reisgem frowned. Highgod Paragons had already reached the peak of the universe. It was very rare for them to owe someone a favor, but once they did, they would deﬁnitely repay it.

“The three of you don’t matter. I only need to kill one person.” Bayer calmly stretched out his right hand, his crystalline ﬁnger pointing towards Bebe. “Him! He was the one who killed Occluar. I will only kill him.”

Linley instantly grew frantic. Reisgem just laughed calmly. “Bayer, do you know what sort of relationship he has to Beirut?”

“Beirut?” Bayer said calmly. “Although he is hard to deal with…even if I do kill his grandson, what will he, Beirut, be able to do to me?”

Chapter 29, Four Against One

In terms of fame, Bayer’s fame had shaken the various realms countless years before Beirut had appeared. As a Highgod Paragon, he was someone whom even the Sovereigns would ﬁght over to make an Emissary. After having been at the very peak of power for so many years, how could he possibly fear Beirut?

More importantly, deep in his heart…Bayer actually somewhat looked down upon Beirut.

Beirut hadn’t reached the Highgod Paragon level, but because his body was simply too powerful and his innate divine ability was too monstrous, even if he encountered Paragons such as Bayer, Beirut wouldn’t be any weaker. Many commanders, in fact, feared Beirut even more than Bayer.

“He just relies on his innate divine ability.” That’s what Bayer believed.

Within the mountain cave estate.

Bayer was there by himself, against Reisgem, Linley, and the other two. The atmosphere, however, clearly seemed to indicate that Bayer held the advantage.

“This is trouble.” Linley was extremely panicked.

“Boss, if we can’t beat him, then run! Perhaps we’ll be able to throw him off.” Bebe sent mentally. “But Boss, this Paragon is very terrifying. Don’t try to hold on if you can’t; what matters is preserving your own life.”

Linley gave Bebe a glance. When Linley had been eight years old, Bebe had begun to follow him. Even if he had to die, Linley wouldn’t abandon Bebe.

“Bayer!”

Linley stared at Bayer, feeling resentment in his heart. If he had the power that Beirut had, then today, he wouldn’t be so helpless.

“What the hell is Occluar doing? He was killed in the Planar Battleﬁeld, and then asked someone to get revenge for him? He really motherf*cking…!” Reisgem cursed, his violet pupils still staring ﬁxedly at Bayer. He called out in a shrill voice, “Bayer, listen up. The person you want to kill belongs to my squad. It

was my squad which worked together to kill Occluar. If you want to kill, then you’ll have to kill all four of us!”

Bayer’s forehead creased slightly. Those two forceful white brows seemed as sharp as knives, and a baleful aura began to gather between them.

“Reisgem, don’t get involved!” Bayer said coldly.

To kill an entire squad? Kill all four of them?

No matter what, Bayer wouldn’t have the courage to kill Reisgem. That was the only child of the Redbud Sovereign. If the enraged Redbud Sovereign truly wished to kill him, although he, Bayer, as a Highgod Paragon, had the ability to stay alive and ﬂee, his only option would be to ﬂee into a material plane. He didn’t want to have to forever hide within a material plane.

“Occluar was killed by this Godeater Rat. Today, I am only killing him as well. The three of you, off to one side.” Bayer’s voice was ﬁerce, and his narrow eyes seemed like the savage, sinister eyes of a lone wolf.

“Crackle…” Linley’s body suddenly became covered with azure-golden draconic scales, while at the same time, his body moved slightly to stand in front of Bebe. Linley just stood there, staring at Bayer ﬁxedly.

“Boss!” Bebe actually laughed.

He wanted to make Linley leave, but Linley’s reaction was exactly what Bebe had thought it would be; over the course of countless years, during each life-and-death crisis, neither the two brothers had had ever ﬂed and left the other behind.

Reisgem and Reihom moved slightly as well to block in front of Bebe.

“Thank you.” Bebe laughed.

“For what? We’re bros. You and me, together, form a powerful team. We can’t possibly do without you.” Reisgem chortled. Bayer couldn’t help but frown. The three in front of him had clearly already made their decisions. They clearly weren’t willing to just think of their own good!

“I always hear people talk about how incredible Paragons on, but I’ve never given one a try.” Reisgem snickered.

The other three were prepared to ﬁght at any moment as well.

“Very well!” Bayer said calmly. His lips were very thin, making him look very mean and sinister.

Linley was staring at Bayer the entire time, but suddenly, Linley felt his vision grow blurry. The white-robed man that had been tens of meters away suddenly turned into a blur. Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom weren’t able to react before the white-robed man’s ﬁgure charged into their midst.

His speed was incredible! He was deﬁnitely the most terrifyingly fast person Linley had ever seen!

The wind element specialized in speed to begin with. One could only imagine how fast a Paragon of Wind was!

“Too fast. I couldn’t see his body clearly at all.” Linley’s face changed. He couldn’t even see the enemy movements; how, then, was he supposed to ﬁght back or to block?

“Blackstone Space!” Linley had no other choice. The only thing he could do was to execute his Blackstone Space, and a blurry earthen yellow light instantly ﬁlled the courtyard. Not just him; actually, Reisgem was also badly startled by Bayer’s speed, and had also hurriedly set up an Amethyst Space.

The two spaces intersected, but the gravitational power didn’t multiply; rather, the stronger Amethyst Space held sway.

“Hrm!”

Bayer’s terrifying speed suddenly slowed down.

However…

Currently, Bayer had already reached Bebe’s side. Because of the Amethyst Space and Blackstone Space, Bebe was now able to clearly see that Bayer had already reached him. Bayer himself couldn’t help but frown slightly as his speed slowed drastically, but he still struck out with the edge of his right palm like a blade, casually chopping down towards Bebe!

“Bebe!” Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom weren’t able to rescue him at all at this moment!

It seemed like a very ordinary palm blow. That crystalline, almost jadelike palm landed towards Bebe, but the strange thing was, space didn’t even ripple. It seemed as though the air itself had calmed down. Bebe was so terriﬁed, his face changed dramatically. “Boss, I can’t move! What a powerful restrictive force!” Bebe’s body was unable to make any large movements; he was just barely able to raise that godspark dagger, but the powerful restrictive force made it so that he wouldn’t be able to block with it, even though it was in his hand.

Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind. “What? Can’t move?” Linley wasn’t able to react in time.

Watching the palm blow descend, Bebe only had one option; using his supreme technique, his innate divine technique. An enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat appeared behind Bebe, and the effects of his innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, immediately took effect on Bayer. “Even though I won’t be able to kill you with it, at least I’ll make you suffer a bit.” This was what Bebe thought.

At the same instant he used his technique, Bayer’s palm blow landed as well!

“CHOP!” That jade-like palm chopped down at the center of Bebe’s chest. With a tremendous ‘BANG!’ sound, a very low sound rumbled. Like a bubble being popped, when the palm blow descended, the formerly stilled space suddenly tore apart, and right in front of the palm, a terrifying spatial rip that was multiple meters long suddenly appeared!

This was the Planar Battleﬁeld!

And yet, such an enormous spatial tear had been created!

“BANG!” Without being able to resist at all, Bebe was knocked ﬂying backwards, smashing into the rocky mountainside. With a ‘boom’ sound, the rocky mountain terrace suddenly had a meter-wide crevice appear, and the entire side of the mountain cracked as large amounts of rubble ﬂew out.

As for Bebe, the force of this palm blow had knocked him completely out of the hundred-plus meters thick mountain.

“Hurry up, let’s go!” Reisgem hurriedly sent mentally.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” Linley, Reihom, and Reisgem ﬂew out through the ‘tunnel’ at almost the same instant towards the outside.

Bayer didn’t stop them. He just laughed calmly, and then his body swayed before he too disappeared from the courtyard.

As Linley’s group of three ﬂew out, then saw the distant Bebe. The clothes Bebe wore, formed out of energy to begin with, had all blown apart, and a terrifying, clearly visible white scar was on Bebe’s chest. Linley, seeing the situation, couldn’t help but feel relieved. “Bebe’s material defense truly is formidable. Bayer, although powerful, isn’t as powerful as the Sovereign had been.”

A casual blow from one of the branches of the Abyssal Fruit Tree had caused Bebe’s skin to split and his ﬂesh to tear.

Clearly, Bayer was a bit weaker. However, that palm blow of his had actually caused Bebe to be bound and unable to move, and had even created such an enormous rift in space. One could imagine how terrifying the attack power had been. Fortunately, the recipient of that palm- edge blow was Bebe; if it had been someone else, that person probably wouldn’t have been able to take a single blow.

“That freak. We aren’t able to hold him off. Let’s hurry and ﬂee.” Reisgem hurriedly sent through divine sense.

In the past, they had heard talk of how formidable Highgod Paragons were, but hadn’t personally seen one in action. That simple blow, however, had caused Reisgem to no longer have any conﬁdence to ﬁght. His material defense wasn’t as monstrous as Bebe’s.

“The material defense of Godeater Rats really lives up to its name.” A calm voice rang out.

Linley and the other three were stunned. They realized that Bayer’s white-robed ﬁgure had appeared in midair. Linley’s heart sank. “It makes sense. Given the power which Bayer displayed, even if we use Sovereign’s Might, we would at most be able to ﬁght on par with him. There’s no way we would be able to escape his attacks.”

Bayer’s speed was a source of tremendous pressure for the others.

“My material attacks in the wind-style and the Destruction- style can both be considered to be at the pinnacle.” Bayer calmly swept the four with his gaze. “I didn’t expect that blow of mine wouldn’t be able to break through the defense of a Godeater Rat. Very well, then…Godeater Rat kid, I rarely use my Sovereign weapon. Today, I will use my Sovereign weapon to send you on your way. I refuse to believe that your defense will be able to withstand my most powerful sword attack!”

Linley, Bebe, Reishom, and Reisgem were all stunned.

Bayer waved his hand, and within it, a longsword that was as thin as the wings of a cicada appeared, glowing with green light. Linley’s heart clenched. Bayer wasn’t a divine beast; his body was ordinary. But by relying on his understanding of the profound mysteries as a Paragon, Bayer’s casual palm blows had already reached such a terrifying level. If he then used a Sovereign artifact to use his most powerful attack…would Bebe’s defense still be able to withstand it? Linley didn’t have any conﬁdence in that at all!

“Sovereign weapon?”

Reisgem’s eyes instantly turned as round as the moon, and then he shouted explosively through divine sense, “Flee, quick, ﬂee!!!” Reisgem’s body once more emanated his Amethyst Space, covering Linley, Bebe, and Reihom. Immediately, their four-person squad, ignoring all else, frantically ﬂed towards the Stellar River.

“Fleeing?”

Bayer let out a disdainful laugh. Flee by relying on speed?

That was impossible. “Whoosh!” Bayer’s body ﬂickered, and he immediately moved to pursue.

A dazzling Amethyst Space spread out. Linley, Reisgem, and the other two were at the center of the Amethyst Space and continue to ﬂee into the distance. Reisgem also helped Bebe increase his speed.

“Reisgem, we are just going to ﬂee, like this?” Linley sent frantically through divine sense.

“The only method now is to ﬂee to the Stellar River. And then, we’ll ﬁnd a safe path through the Stellar River to the center, then hide in one of the giant ﬂoating boulders. At that time, when Bayer comes over, we’ll knock him directly into one of the spatial tears. We won’t be able to kill him, but we’ll be able to make him disappear forever within the spatial tear.” Reisgem sent mentally. “However…I don’t know if we’ll make it to the Stellar River.”

Linley had no other ideas either. Reisgem’s method was indeed their only option.

“Haha…Reisgem, using your Gravitational Space against me is useless.” Wild, conﬁdent laughter rang out in Linley’s mind.

Right at this moment…

Linley and the other three, who were keeping a close watch on Bayer at all times, realized that he had ﬂown in front of him. A wild burst of energy blasted forth from Bayer, instantly causing an area within a thousand meters to instantly begin to spatially distort as the wild energy waves lashed about.

Linley’s group of four could feel the effects of this technique as space itself seemed to constrict them.

“How is this possible!” Linley also trained in the Laws of the Wind, and knew that of the nine great profound mysteries, there were the Profound Mysteries of Spatial Wind, but that sort of restrictive power was negligible for Highgods. But who would have imagined…that when a Highgod Paragon used this technique, even Reisgem would be affected. Their speed slowed dramatically!

“Swoosh!” Bayer ﬂew directly into the Amethyst Space. Although his speed dropped, he was still much faster than Linley’s group of four now was while under the spatial binding.

Bayer ﬂew at high speed towards Bebe, but he lowered his head to look down at the Sovereign artifact in his hand, as though it was a dear lover of his. Bayer very casually swung out with his Sovereign weapon, and instantly, the already distorted space tore apart like a piece of rotten cloth!

A terrifying spatial tear that was a hundred meters long suddenly appeared. This hundred meter long spatial tear was a rip in space that was a ﬁnger thick. Following the movements of the Sovereign weapon, it landed directly on the body of Bebe, who had been unable to dodge. At the same time, the Sovereign weapon shot out in every direction with arrow-like rays of energy, each of which caused minute spatial fractures.

“Slash!” A thin fracture slashed past Linley, who wasn’t able to dodge.

It very easily tore through Linley’s draconic scaled defense. A large chunk of ﬂesh and bone was directly torn from Linley’s arm.

But Linley’s attention was completely focused on Bebe. His face changed dramatically. “Bebe!” Linley was only hit by the side effects of the attack, but Bebe was hit by the Sovereign weapon head on!

Chapter 30, Canteen?

“What a terrifying fellow!”

Bebe was utterly frightened as well. That palm-edge blow from earlier had already made him feel great danger. Bebe himself knew that this full-force sword blow from a Sovereign weapon was something which Beirut might be able to deal with bare-handed, were he here, due to his insights into the profound mysteries. But Bebe was no Beirut! He deﬁnitely wouldn’t be able to take it head on so easily.

“My insights into the Laws are far too inferior to Grandpa’s! I’d best not try to push it.” Bebe didn’t hesitate at all. As that sword chopped down, within his sea of consciousness, an adorable little Godeater Rat instantly activated a drop of Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might. Bebe had two bodies as well…

One was his divine darkness clone, while the other was his Saint-level original body. Only, the Saint-level original body remained in the shape of a Godeater Rat; it was much like how Beirut’s three sons all had original bodies that were in the form of rats. Normally, the original bodies were merged into the divine clones. Bebe understood that if his divine darkness clone died, his original body would unquestionably die as well.

“BOOM!”

A black light emerged, covering Bebe’s entire body as he was once more knocked away at high speed, smashing viciously into the ground. With a “BANG” sound, a deep crevice appeared in the earth. But his body wasn’t damaged at all.

“Thank goodness.” Linley let out a sigh of relief.

Reisgem, Reihom, and Linley all ﬂew towards Bebe at high speed.

“Bebe.” Linley hurriedly helped Bebe up.

“Heh heh, Boss, I’m ﬁne. He wasn’t even able to scratch me.” Bebe chortled. However, Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom didn’t relax their vigilance; Bebe had used up a drop of Sovereign’s Might in order to escape the earlier tribulation. Linley couldn’t help but to look back towards Bayer, who stood there not moving.

Bayer was looking at Bebe with curiosity.

“Sovereign’s Might?” Bayer wasn’t angry at all. “Godeater Rats really are an incredible type of divine beasts. One worthy of me using a drop of Sovereign’s Might as well!”

“BANG!”

A faint green light suddenly erupted forth like ﬂames from Bayer’s body, but then retracted back into it. Not a single hint of it was dissipating! Clearly, as a Highgod Paragon, he could perfectly control Sovereign’s Might. This scene caused Linley and the other three to feel terror in their hearts.

“He is using Sovereign’s Might as well!” Linley called out mentally in alarm. “Not just a Sovereign weapon, but also using Sovereign’s Might!” Reisgem was so angry, he wanted to curse. For Bayer to do this was absolutely too abusive!

Bayer actually had a hint of a smile on his lips. He looked at Bebe. “To let me use both a Sovereign weapon and Sovereign’s Might…even in death, you should feel proud.” After speaking, his body once more ﬂickered forward. Although Reisgem’s Amethyst Space was always active, Bayer’s speed was still so fast…that Linley and the other two weren’t able to block at all.

Although no aura of Sovereign power emanated from Bayer’s body, he clearly had already used it.

“He used Sovereign’s Might. Bebe won’t be able to hold on.” Linley worried mentally.

Immediately, an enormous coiling Azure Dragon Phantom appeared in the air behind Linley. At this critical moment, not hesitating at all, Linley used his own innate divine ability… Dragon Roar! Bayer’s soul heard the roar of the dragon as well.

Unconsciously, Bayer’s body paused for a moment, but afterwards, Bayer’s speed returned to normal. That bit of inﬂuence was negligible for him. Linley felt sourness as well. “Bebe’s innate divine ability isn’t capable of doing anything to a Highgod Paragon, and it seems this technique of mine is also negligible for him.”

Linley had a certain feeling…

That when he used this technique against Bayer, it was like he was an ant trying to shake a tree. Perhaps this was a very special ant, but the only result was that the leaves of the tree trembled slightly.

“BEBE!!!!” Linley felt agonized at his helplessness, and his soul howled in misery.

“SHKREEEEEEEE!” An exceedingly ear-piercing howl rang out, carrying a certain wild savagery.

“BANG!”

Space twisted and coiled about, and then multiple spatial tears appeared. Bebe was once again knocked backwards, blood ﬂying everywhere. Seeing the brilliant blood, Linley’s face instantly turned white. Before this, he had still held some hope…but Linley didn’t actually despair yet either.

Because he could still feel Bebe’s existence!

“Haha, you want to kill me!? Grandpa’s words really were correct! We Godeater Rats have the number one defensive strength in all the planes of the universe! If I don’t use Sovereign’s Might, my body is like a divine spark. After using Sovereign’s Might…there is no Highgod capable of killing me!” Bebe called out, seeming to be rather crazed.

Linley discovered, to his astonishment, that although Bebe’s chest did indeed have a wound carved into it, with fresh blood ﬂowing…the wound wasn’t too deep. “How can that be?” Bayer stared at Bebe in astonishment.

His full strength sword blow still wasn’t able to kill him?

“Hmph. My muscles and my skin are equally tough, but the hardest part of my body is my bones! The bones throughout my body are infused with a large amount of divine spark essence! Haha…just now, I was afraid, because in the past, when that Sovereign badly injured me with one blow, my bones were broken. I thought that after using Sovereign’s Might and with a Sovereign weapon, your attack would be comparable to that Sovereign’s attack.” Bebe boasted.

Although Beirut had previously told Bebe how terrifyingly great the defensive power of a Godeater Rat was, and although Bebe had always been very self-conﬁdent…

At the Abyssal Mountain, his defenses were easily shattered by the Abyssal Fruit Tree, and even his bones had been broken. This caused Bebe to begin to doubt himself.

As he saw it… A Highgod Paragon, using a Sovereign weapon with Sovereign’s Might, should be comparable to a casual blow from a Sovereign. But now, it seemed, that although the attack power of a Highgod Paragon was indeed terrifying, compared to a Sovereign, he was still vastly inferior.

“Haha…formidable, formidable!” Reisgem began to laugh delightedly as well. “Bebe, you thought just because he used Sovereign’s Might and a Sovereign weapon that he would be comparable to a Sovereign? Then you are ridiculously mistaken. Highgods, compared to Sovereigns, are far, far too weak. Bebe, what makes Sovereigns so powerful isn’t their Sovereign artifacts or their Sovereign power; rather, it is their Will! An attack that contains a Sovereign’s Will is a truly terrifying attack.”

Linley and Bebe were both stunned. A Sovereign’s Will?

Will was something that was incorporeal; how could it be powerful? “Aside from Highgod Paragons, if a Sovereign wishes to kill a Highgod, there’s no need to even lift a ﬁnger. The Sovereign only needs to wish it. That’s what a Sovereign’s Will is!” Reisgem laughed loudly. “A Highgod that uses Sovereign’s Might and a Sovereign using Sovereign’s Might…the difference in power is more ten thousand times, because of the Will of the

Sovereign!”

Linley now understood.

He had heard long ago that a Sovereign could kill a Highgod with but a thought, and that only Highgod Paragons could slightly resist. At that time, Linley hadn’t understood…how could a Highgod be killed by a mere thought? Why?

So it seemed…that there was something known as the ‘Sovereign’s Will’ which existed.

“The Will of a Sovereign is this powerful?” Linley didn’t understand why.

But Linley didn’t have time to ask Reisgem.

Because at this moment, Bayer’s face ﬁnally grew solemn. He stared coldly at Bebe. “Godeater Rats reﬁne divine spark essences to strengthen their own body. As far as material defenses go, amongst all the varied divine beasts, you Godeater Rats truly can be ranked number one. I admit that I won’t be able to injure you with material attacks. Then…listen to a song of mine!”

As soon as his words fell…

Linley, Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom began to hear a certain melody in their minds. That song constantly echoed throughout their mind, carrying with it a strange, magical power. When he ﬁrst heard it, Linley was able to resist for a second or two, but after that, he became entranced by the music and entered a dazed state.

And…as soon as he heard that song…

Linley’s divine clone had immediately, unstintingly, used up a drop of water-type Sovereign’s Might! Linley’s earth-type Sovereign’s Might had been used up long ago, and he only had two drops of water-type Sovereign’s Might. By using up a drop now, he would only have one more remaining.

Of the group of four, only a single person immediately regained his faculties after being momentarily dazed.

That was Reisgem!

His accomplishments in the soul were exceedingly great. Linley, Reihom, and Bebe had all entered a dazed state, but fortunately enough for Linley and Reihom, Bayer didn’t want to kill them, just make them dazed. As for Bebe…just as his soul entered a dazed state, he also began to suffer a strange soul attack.

Logically speaking…

In a dazed state, one wouldn’t know to use Sovereign’s Might to resist. Generally speaking, when faced with the soul attack of a Highgod Paragon, the result would be death.

However…

“Bayer, enough.” Reisgem growled, launching a soul attack towards Bayer as well.

“How can this be!” Bayer paused his attack as well.

Linley, Bebe, and Reihom regained their mental clarity, and Linley felt cold sweat drip down his back. “Even after using Sovereign’s Might, I wasn’t able to resist. However, I didn’t die. It seems he didn’t attack.” Linley understood that without him actively controlling his damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, it deﬁnitely wouldn’t be hard for this person to kill him.

But he hadn’t died. Clearly, Bayer didn’t want to kill him.

“How can this be? You…you have a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact?!” Bayer looked at Bebe.

“Uhh….” Bebe shook his head. “I just have a soul-protecting artifact.”

“Impossible! A soul-protecting artifact capable of blocking my ‘Soul Nirvana’ melody? You…you deﬁnitely have a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact!” Bayer wasn’t willing to believe it. Bayer now had ﬁnally lost his earlier conﬁdence. He stared at Bebe. “How can you have a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact? You are a Sovereign’s Emissary?”

Bebe shook his head.

“Soul-protecting Sovereign artifact? Grandpa told me that it was a soul-protecting artifact.” Bebe didn’t understand it.

Linley ﬁnally relaxed. Whether it was a soul-protecting artifact or a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact…clearly, Bayer wasn’t able to do anything to Bebe. Although Bayer was terrifying, and most likely would be able to easily kill Linley, Reisgem, or Reihom… He wasn’t able to kill Bebe!

Bebe’s material defense and soul defense had both reached monstrous levels.

“According to legends, the Bloodridge Sovereign bestowed a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact to Beirut. I didn’t expect that he would actually transfer it to you.” Bayer laughed coldly. Everyone knew that Beirut had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, but Bayer now believed that Beirut had actually transferred the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact to Bebe.

“Hey, what else are you going to die? You aren’t able to kill Bebe. Aren’t you going to leave?” Reisgem snorted.

Bayer took a deep breath, regaining his calm.

“If I’m not able to kill him, then I…will push him into a region of chaotic space!” Bayer said coldly, while stretching out his hands. He was standing in midair, and suddenly, with him at the center, multiple strands of faint green energy ribbons sprang out from his hands. Those hundred-plus hundred- meter energy ribbons all coiled towards Bebe.

“Push him into chaotic space?” Linley was stunned as well.

“ROAAAAAAAAAAR!”

Reisgem suddenly let out an absolutely enraged growl, and behind Reisgem, the illusion of an enormous monster that was over a hundred meters tall suddenly appeared. This monster had 108 spikes on its back, and was a monster that Linley was very familiar with; it looked just like the ‘juvenile amethyst beast’ Linley had previously seen.

Instantly, 108 rays of violet light exploded forth from Reisgem’s body, each ﬁlled with black-colored Sovereign power.

With Reisgem at the center, those rays of violet light completely covered and surrounded Linley, Bebe, and Reihom, actually forming a black, spherical cocoon which was covered with violet light.

“Amethyst Rampart!” Bayer frowned.

The Amethyst Space was actually just an innate supreme technique of Reisgem’s; in truth, it couldn’t be considered a ‘divine ability’. Divine abilities consumed a tremendous amount of spiritual energy! This ‘Amethyst Rampart’ was Reisgem’s true, innate divine ability! Once this technique appeared, there was no way for Bayer to break through the Amethyst Rampart for now as well.

Moments later…

The Amethyst Rampart disappeared. The Amethyst Rampart couldn’t actually be sustained for very long.

“Reisgem, it seems you insist on protecting this Godeater Rat.” Bayer said coldly. “Fine, then. I admit that with this Godeater Rat having used Sovereign’s Might, I’m unable to kill him. However…once his Sovereign’s Might dissipates, I refuse to believe that he’ll be able to escape my sword again. Given the speed of my sword, I trust that you won’t be able to block at all.”

Linley frowned.

Bayer’s words were reasonable. Although Bebe had used a drop of Sovereign’s Might, it was constantly dissipating. Soon, it would be completely gone.

Bebe’s material defense was indeed strong, but when he used Sovereign’s Might, his defense was still breached. He had to rely on his bones to take the blow head on.

But if Bebe didn’t have any Sovereign’s Might left, while Bayer was still able to perfectly control his own Sovereign’s Might without wasting it…given that Bayer would be able to use it for a very long time, when Bebe’s ran out, would Bebe be able to block?

“Boss! I’ve been eating divine sparks for many years, but the number that I’ve eaten isn’t enough yet. My bones aren’t as tough as Grandpa’s yet. If I don’t use Sovereign’s Might, while that Bayer uses both a Sovereign weapon and Sovereign power, my skull probably wouldn’t be able to resist that sword of his.” Bebe sent frantically.

Linley began to feel nervous as well.

Bebe’s Sovereign power was constantly dissipating. But Bayer? Not a hint of it was leaking out. How were they supposed to compete against him?

“Eh?”

Reisgem stared. “What…you want to compete with ME in seeing who has more Sovereign’s Might?”

Bayer was startled.

Reisgem turned towards Linley and Bebe and laughed, “Linley, Bebe, I forgot to tell you something after you two joined my hunting squad. Since you two are members of my squad now, I, as the captain, should treat you without holding anything back.” As he spoke, Reisgem made a tossing motion, and two rays of violet light ﬂew towards Linley and Bebe.

Linley and Bebe immediately stretched their hands out to receive it.

Linley lowered his head to look at it. It was a ‘canteen’ that was completely made out of carved amethysts. This sort of canteen, although quite intricately designed, was familiar to Linley. When he had been in the Yulan continent, ordinary soldiers would always carry these types of canteens with them.

“Is this a water canteen?” Linley was puzzled.

Linley reached out with his divine sense, passing through the obstruction of the amethysts, to inspect the insides of the canteen. And when he did…he was badly shocked.

“Gaaah! Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might?! This…an entire canteen?!” Bebe called out in shock as well.

Linley was similarly stunned.

He, too, realized that this canteen was actually ﬁlled with liqueﬁed Sovereign’s Might. An entire canteen full of it!

“Take it. The young master gave me a canteen as well.” Reihom said.

Linley and Bebe stared towards Reisgem, stunned.

Reisgem snickered, then waved his hand. “Just take it. It’s just Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might. My mother has plenty of it. She has an entire lake ﬁlled with it, so I ﬁlled a few canteens with it. I have plenty. You keep it. Those Redbud Army soldiers have a salary. You guys are my squadmates, and this can be considered your salary.” To Reisgem, the only son of a Sovereign, of course this was something that didn’t matter much. Sovereigns agreed amongst themselves to only give a single Sovereign artifact to Deities, but there was no limit to the amount of Sovereign’s Might they could bestow.

“A…canteen?” Linley felt his head grow dizzy.

Sovereign’s Might was normally measured out by the ‘drop’.

“A canteen of Sovereign’s Might? How many drops is that?” Linley couldn’t even imagine it.

Bayer felt a headache as well. Good heavens. He was a Highgod Paragon, true, but although a Sovereign might give him some Sovereign’s Might, the Sovereign naturally wouldn’t treat him as she might treat their her own son, ﬁlling an entire lake with Sovereign’s Might and letting her son take as much of it as he wanted. “Compete with the son of a Sovereign in Sovereign’s Might?” Bayer felt resigned.

Reisgem rubbed his nose. “Bayer, my divine clone had already informed my mother of what is going on here. Although my mother won’t be able to make it here immediately, she can arrange for some people to come. I imagine that as time goes on, my mother will personally come to the Planar Battleﬁeld.”

Sovereigns generally wouldn’t interfere in the matters of Highgods.

But it was only natural for a Sovereign to interfere when her own son was in danger.

And not all Sovereigns were the same; generally speaking, if an ordinary person became a Sovereign, that person might have countless children and so wouldn’t care too much about them. But the Redbud Sovereign was like a divine beast, an exceedingly rare, unique individual. She had only a single son.

“Whew.” Bayer shook his head and laughed bitterly.

“This Godeater Rat’s defense is indeed powerful. Although I’m not able to kill him, I don’t consider is as being a loss of face. As least I tried. There’s nothing Occluar will be able to say to me.” Bayer gave Reisgem’s group a ﬁnal glance, and then his body ﬂickered and disappeared as he left.

Linley and Bebe each held a canteen, staring as Bayer departed.

“Ah, he ﬁnally left.” Reisgem let out a long breath. “A Highgod Paragon. I was afraid that this fellow would go crazy. Fortunately, I managed to scare him off.” Reisgem was frightened as well. If Bayer really did go crazy and decide to kill them all, Reisgem wouldn’t even have time to cry. At worst, Bayer would just have to hide in a material plane and to never go to the Divine Planes or the Higher Realms again.”

Chapter 31, The Number One Clan

After Bayer left, Linley let out a sigh of relief as well.

“Compared to a Highgod Paragon, I most likely would only be able to preserve my life if I had a defensive Sovereign artifact and a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Linley had been rendered speechless by Bayer’s attack power, and the constrictive power of it had been able to cause space itself to twist and distort. The disruptive power exceeded even Reisgem’s ‘Amethyst Space’.

Upon encountering a Paragon, only someone like Bebe whose material defense and soul defense were both at the very peak would be capable of staying alive.

“Wait. Even if my defenses are powerful, Bayer would probably still be able to throw me into a ﬁeld of spatial chaos.” When Linley thought of this, he felt all the more terriﬁed by the might of a Paragon. Previously, Linley had seen quite a few experts who had fused ﬁve profound mysteries. Linley had thought a Paragon would be powerful, but not ridiculously so. But upon encountering one, Linley realized…

Paragons, just by waving their hands, could easily cause space to twist and distort, and tear the world apart. Between fusing ﬁve profound mysteries and becoming a Paragon, there was a massive, qualitative rise in power.

“Bayer won’t come again, will he?” A low voice rang out.

Linley turned his head to look. The speaker was the big fellow, ‘Reihom’. Bebe, some dirt and dust on his face, said quickly, “Of course not! He is a Paragon, after all; since he left, how could he come back? Even if he came back, I’m not afraid of him.” Bebe’s words caused Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom to all look at him.

“You aren’t afraid?” Reisgem had a rather disbelieving tone to his voice.

Actually, Reisgem himself was afraid. If Bayer truly went insane, he could kill Reisgem, Reihom, and Linley, then drag Bebe into a region of chaotic space. The price would just be that he would face the pursuit and attack of the Redbud Sovereign, and would have to forever hide within a material plane.

Reisgem was afraid, and Linley and Reihom felt the same way. In front of Bayer, they weren’t able to resist at all.

Bebe…unafraid?

Stared at by the other three, Bebe let out an awkward laugh. “Fine, to be honest, of course I’m a bit scared. In front of that Bayer, I feel as though all I can do is stand there and be beaten. I’m not able to resist at all. That strange song of his made me lose consciousness. Enough, he’s left, so this is at an end. I hope in the future, I won’t run into that Bayer again. Unless I’m at Grandpa’s level of power…”

Linley, hearing this, couldn’t help but laugh. He then looked towards Reisgem. This time, they truly had to thank Reisgem.

“Fortunately, Reisgem, you used the Sovereign to threaten him.” Linley laughed with a sigh.

“Hmph. That was all talk. By the time my mother actually made it here, Bayer would’ve ﬂed long ago.” Reisgem pursed his lips. “Fortunately, Bayer wasn’t willing to go all out for the sake of Occluar.”

Linley nodded slightly as well.

If Occluar and Bayer had a relationship that was as close as Linley and Bebe’s, most likely, Bayer really would’ve ignored all else to kill them. Fortunately, the two didn’t have a relationship at that level yet.

“Reisgem, this Sovereign’s Might…” Linley only now thought of the canteen of Sovereign’s Might in his hand.

Good heavens…a full canteen! What a terrifying fortune this was!

“Reisgem, just now, you just wanted to shock Bayer and let him know that there was no way he would be able to kill Bebe, which is why you brought out this canteen of Sovereign’s Might. Now that this is at an end, you can take it back.” Linley immediately handed the amethyst canteen back to Reisgem.

It wasn’t that Linley didn’t want the Sovereign’s Might. If it had only been one or two drops, Linley would’ve accepted it.

But this was an entire canteen…

This was too precious, something Linley felt was too hot to hold. While working together with Reisgem, Linley hadn’t made any great contributions, so how could he receive a canteen of Sovereign’s Might? As the saying goes, if no merits were rendered, none should be recorded. To receive a treasure without having accomplished anything? Linley felt uneasy.

“Eh?” Bebe was startled.

“Here you go.” Bebe did the same thing. “HEY!” Reisgem stared at Linley and Bebe, then said angrily, “Linley, Bebe, what are you two doing? Hmph, if you are going to be so insincere, we might as well just split up the squad. You go your way, and Reihom and I will go ours. You two don’t treat me as bros anyhow. As for the canteen of Sovereign’s Might? I, Reisgem, have never taken back something I gifted out. If you don’t want it, then toss it!”

Linley felt speechless and resigned.

“Haha, Boss, Reisgem isn’t the stingy sort.” Bebe snickered, slapping his arm around Reisgem’s shoulders. “Just take it.” Bebe was rather unwilling to part with it to begin with; only, having seen Linley give it up, he had to do the same.

“Hear that?” Reisgem delightedly raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just toss this Sovereign’s Might and go your own way, while the three of us go ours. Or…just keep it.”

Linley wasn’t the overly polite sort to begin with; only, this canteen of Sovereign’s Might was simply too valuable, and so he wasn’t able to accept it right away, which is why he had acted in such a manner. But now that Reisgem had responded in such a way, what else could Linley do? All he could do was, with a ﬂip of his hand, store the canteen of Sovereign’s Might into his interspatial ring.

“That’s more like it.” Reisgem chortled merrily. “To be honest, earlier on, when I just reached the Highgod level and hadn’t fused that many of the profound mysteries, I probably wouldn’t have been willing to be generous, even if you asked me to.”

“Eh? What’s that about?” Bebe said.

Linley just laughed while listening. With Bebe and Reisgem standing together, it was like a pair of youths. Their eyes were both so lively and agile; they looked like two siblings.

The four of them chatted while walking forward.

“What my mother said is that I needed to be tempered!” Reisgem laughed. “Without me having reached a certain level of power, if she were to give me a large amount of Sovereign’s Might, I would never feel as though I were in any danger, which would make it harder for me to make any breakthroughs. Thus, only after I fused ﬁve profound mysteries did my mother stop restricting me in terms of how much Sovereign’s Might I could have.”

Linley nodded slightly.

Without a sense of danger, it would be fairly hard to rise in power. Linley could completely understand the actions of the Redbud Sovereign.

“Oh…you have so much Sovereign’s Might. Boss’s Four Divine Beasts clan rarely hands out even a single drop of Sovereign’s Might.” Bebe said with a sigh.

Reisgem laughed loudly. “The Four Divine Beasts clan? How can they compare to me? An enormous clan like that has millions of people, scattered throughout the four great planes. The four great Sovereigns did indeed bestow a huge amount of Sovereign’s Might to them! But did the people of the Four Divine Beasts clan learn to treasure it? They did not! Those four clan leaders probably never imagined that their four Sovereigns would perish. When the four Sovereigns died…the time came that they no longer had access to unlimited amounts of Sovereign’s Might! They were completely dumbfounded.”

“Once the four Sovereigns died, they no longer had a source for Sovereign’s Might. It would be hard for them to acquire any more. Of course they would hand it out sparingly, one drop at a time.”

Linley, hearing this, nodded to himself.

The deaths of the four ancestors did indeed strike a heavy blow against the clan.

“An enormous clan like that, whose fame shook the various planes, fell just like that.” Linley let out a sigh. Originally, when Linley had entered the Azure Dragon clan, Linley had sighed at how much Sovereign’s Might the clan had. But now, he understood that giving each Elder a single drop was a way of being thrifty in using it.

When the four Sovereigns were still alive, most likely the manner in which the Azure Dragon clan divided up Sovereign’s Might was completely different.

“The Four Divine Beasts clan originally was very strong. However, in the countless planes of the universe, they still cannot be considered the number one clan.” Reisgem said.

“Eh? There was a clan even more powerful than the Four Divine Beasts clan clan?” Linley was rather surprised.

“The number one clan is the Augusta [Ao’gu’si’ta] clan of the Divine Light Plane.” Reisgem said with a calm laugh.

Linley knew a few things about the Infernal Realm and the Netherworld, but very little about the other planes.

“The Augusta clan?” Three names drifted into Linley’s mind. These three names came from Beirut’s intelligence reports on commanders. All three were commanders, and the three of them…all shared the surname ‘Augusta’. Clearly, they were of the Augusta clan.

Back then, Linley hadn’t paid much attention. After all, there were quite a few siblings who were commanders. For three to share one surname wasn’t too surprising.

“The ﬁrst generation member of the Augusta clan is the Chief Sovereign of Light.” Reisgem said, pursing his lips.

Linley now understood. “No wonder the clan is so powerful. They are the descendants of the Chief Sovereign of Light.” As a Chief Sovereign, one could imagine how exalted a status and how great the power the Chief Sovereign of Light possessed.

“The Chief Sovereign of Light has many descendants. The second generation of the clan has 182 members.” Reisgem said with a sigh.

Linley and Bebe were both stupeﬁed.

“Reisgem, are the second generation members all the sons and daughters of the Chief Sovereign of Light?” Linley didn’t dare believe it. In the Four Divine Beasts clan, the Azure Dragon only had a son and a daughter, while the Vermilion Bird had only a single child. The White Tiger had one child, while the Black Tortoise had two.

But this Augusta clan’s second generation had 182 members?

“Right.” Reisgem nodded. “The Chief Sovereign of Light was originally a member of an ordinary race before he became a Chief Sovereign. Thus, unlike the divine beasts who have few children, he had 182. However, these 182 children are not all on the same level. Still, because the population of the Augusta clan expanded very rapidly, and because they had sufﬁcient resources, they naturally produced quite a few experts. However, the Augusta clan has only expanded in the Divine Light Plane. They aren’t like your Four Divine Beasts clan, which scattered throughout the planes.”

“The Augusta clansmen are very arrogant.” The always taciturn Reihom suddenly spoke out.

“Eh?” Linley looked towards Reihom. He could feel the anger within Reihom’s words. Reisgem sighed and said, “One of my mother’s Emissary’s, Reihom’s good friend ‘Bosley’ [Bu’si’li], was killed by the forces of the Augusta clan. Bosley now only has a weak clone remaining. I imagine this time, the Augusta clan’s people came to the Planar Battleﬁeld as well. If we encounter two of them, we have to kill some of them to vent our anger. Hmph. Forget it. Enough about that clan of bastards. They ruin the mood.”

As Linley’s group of four left the battleﬁeld, they didn’t run, just casually walked forward. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, aside from Paragons like Bayer, their hunting squad feared no one.

But that battle had, indeed, attracted quite a few people.

On the desolate earth, ﬁve ﬁgures emerged. The leader was a youth who was dressed in a beautiful silver robe, and who had long, dazzling hair.

“Oh, the Amethyst Rampart. Hey, that’s Bayer!” The golden- haired youth’s eyes lit up. He saw, in the distance, Bayer standing in the sky like a celestial divinity. With Bayer present, the ﬁve hadn’t dared to go near. But after watching from far away for a time, they saw that Bayer actually left.

“Young master Montelo [Meng’te’lo], this is a good opportunity.” Next to him was a callous, short silver-haired man who was dressed in a golden robe.

The golden-haired youth’s eyes lit up.

Right at this moment, the golden-haired youth suddenly turned his head to look nearby. There were actually two people, a man and a woman, walking over. “Montelo, long time no see.” The leader, a black-haired, silver-robed woman said with a light smile.

“Ranessa [La’na’sha]!” Montelo laughed as well.

“You saw that battle just now, right? Bayer went to act against Reisgem’s group. I wonder what the results of that battle were.” The silver-robed woman, Ranessa, said with a laugh. “But I’m certain that Reisgem remains alive.” “I’m certain about this as well.” Montelo said with a calm laugh, and then his eyes lit up. “Ranessa, how about we join forces and go teach that Reisgem a lesson?”

“Teach him a lesson?” Ranessa frowned slightly. “I know that a grudge exists between your clan and Reisgem, but…” Ranessa also knew Montelo’s status. Montelo was a third generation member of the Augusta clan. The second generation had 182 members, and the third generation had more than a thousand.”

Montelo relied on his innate talent and his ability to have a fairly high status within his clan. But compared to Reisgem, his status was far inferior. After all, the Chief Sovereign of Light had too many children. Montelo was just a grandchild, while the Redbud Sovereign only had a single son.

There weren’t many who would dare to kill Reisgem.

“Don’t worry, we won’t kill Reisgem.” Montelo said with a light laugh. “I’ll be responsible for entangling Reisgem, while the other three of you, along with my other four, seven in total, will act against Reisgem’s comrades. If you can kill one, do so. It’s best if you kill them all! Hmph, if we can’t kill Reisgem, we can still kill his comrades.” Montelo’s eyes ﬂashed with cold light.

Ranessa turned to discuss this with the two youths by her side, then laughed.

The Sovereigns were lofty individuals. As long as one didn’t commit any forbidden acts, there wouldn’t be any problems. Even if they badly injured Reisgem, there wouldn’t be a problem. The Sovereigns actually hoped that their children would suffer setbacks while growing up. As long as they didn’t kill Reisgem, it was ﬁne. As for Reisgem’s comrades and their lives, the Sovereign didn’t have the time to bother with them, nor would the Sovereign lower her status to bother with them.

The world of Deities had its own rules. Sovereigns generally wouldn’t casually interfere.

“Fine. However, the badges we get from killing them are mine.” Ranessa said. “Fine.” Montello immediately agreed.

“Let’s go, then. Reisgem and the others have most likely gone far away by now.” Ranessa said.

Immediately, the two forces merged and the eight of them stealthily slipped forward at high speed.

Chapter 32, What’s This?

The Planar Battleﬁeld was as quiet and icy as ever.

The wind blew and sand ﬂew everywhere.

Linley, Bebe, Reisgem, and Reishom walked forward casually, preparing to ﬁnd a good place to rest.

“Eh?” Reisgem suddenly turned his head to look behind.

“What is it?” Bebe said, puzzled. Linley, seeing the situation, turned his head to look behind them as well, but behind them, the scene was still one of desolate, wild grass. There wasn’t a single person present.

But Reisgem furrowed his brows. “It seems someone is present.” As soon as Reisgem spoke, Linley sensed how from behind, the aura of two badges from their alliance could be sensed. Those two auras were ﬂying forward towards them at high speed. Linley gave a suspicious look, and amidst the wild grassy growth, eight ﬁgures suddenly appeared, ﬂying straight for Linley’s group.

Two belonged to the Divine Darkness Plane’s side, while six belonged to the Divine Light Plane’s side.

However, for the purposes of this battle, they were on the same side.

“Montelo!” Reihom’s voice boomed out.

“Montelo!” Reisgem’s face changed. “BANG!” A wild surge of black energy emerged from his body. He had immediately used his Sovereign’s Might, while at the same time, that longspear appeared in his hands. Not hesitating in the slightest, Reisgem bent back, like a powerful longbow that was being pulled, and then threw out the Sovereign longspear in his hands forward. Crackle…

Filled with Sovereign power, the weapon blasted forth explosively. That amethyst longspear ﬂowed with black light. Moving at high speed, it transformed into a black blur, creating cracks in space as it ﬂew forward.

The Sovereign longspear was aimed at a solitary, arrogant- looking middle-aged man by Montelo’s side.

“Hmph!” By the arrogant fellow’s side, a petite little green- haired lady suddenly exploded with white light. She moved like a gust of wind to receive the blow in front of the arrogant fellow. Her right ﬁst, covered by a black glove, actually came smashing against the Sovereign spear’s tip.

“BANG!”

The ﬁst and the speartip collided. “Rumble…” That petite green-haired lady was knocked back explosively by the collision, and several cracks in space appeared as well. As for the amethyst Sovereign longspear, it ﬂew back towards Reisgem at high speed.

“Reisgem, you killed the members of my Augusta clan. Today, we’ll punish you a bit for it.” Montelo laughed loudly, while at the same time, his body began to blaze with white light as he ﬂew towards Reisgem like a giant bird. While ﬂying through the air, his entire body actually began to shoot out with strands of white ‘silk’, which wound their way towards Reisgem.

Reisgem was furious as well, and he called out through divine sense, “Go all out and kill them! Use your Sovereign’s Might, kill!”

“BANG!” Reihom suddenly stomped on the ground viciously.

“Rumble…” The earth beneath the feet of the enemies suddenly rose upwards as the land instantly rose up, then pressed down towards the seven, blocking their line of vision as well.

“Kill.” Reihom’s eyes were ﬁlled with a murderous intent as well, and he too charged forward.

Right at this moment, seven enemy ﬁgures were shooting towards them as well. “What terrible luck. One is the Augusta clan, while the other is Reisgem. They immediately used Sovereign’s Might as soon as the battle started. They have no idea of what the concept of being ‘thrifty’ is.” The silver-robed woman, Ranessa, muttered in her heart. Still, her body glowed with a blue light as well.

The battle had instantly exploded!

Linley instantly Dragonformed as well, and Mirage appeared in his hands. He immediately activated a drop of Destruction- type Sovereign’s Might! Linley sighed mentally with praise, “Having an entire canteen of Sovereign’s Might really does change things!” If he only had two or three drops, how could he use it so wantonly as he just did, at the very start of battle? Linley now understood why the Four Divine Beasts clan could be spread throughout so many planes but still be so powerful. Most likely, the Four Divine Beasts clan of then was much like he was now; they had no reservations about using Sovereign’s Might.

“Oman [Wu’man], you go deal with that Azure Dragon clan fellow! You just so happen to counter the Azure Dragon clan.” Montelo gave the order while shooting forward towards Reisgem.

Actually, there was no need to give the order. Because Reisgem’s side only had four people in total, and because Montelo was dealing with Reisgem, the other seven were more than enough to deal with Linley and the other two.

“Don’t worry!”

That arrogant-looking silver-haired, gold-robed man launched himself off from the ground, instantly arriving by Linley’s side. Actually, it wasn’t just Oman who attacked Linley. As the saying goes, there were many monks, but only so many alms to go around! Before Oman arrived, a whip wielding youth who belonged to Ranessa’s side attacked Linley. When that long whip struck out, it actually transformed and elongated, coiling towards Linley like a giant serpent slashing out with its tail.

Linley’s form retreated at high speed.

“BANG!”

Mirage blocked the whip. Linley’s body instantly radiated a black aura, forming an enormous ‘Blackstone Space’. Although the power of this technique when fueled by Destruction-type Sovereign’s power wasn’t as great as when it was fueled by earth-type Sovereign’s power, the strength of the gravitational power still vastly exceeded that of Highgod power.

Right after Linley blocked the whip, the golden-robed man descended from the heavens. “Eh?” Linley saw, to his astonishment, that a three-meter long mace suddenly appeared within the golden-robed man’s hands. The golden-robed man smashed directly towards Linley with the mace.

“Crackle…”

As the spikes of the mace tore through the air, it actually caused spatial fractures to appear.

“Not good.” Linley hurriedly controlled the direction of his gravity. Previously, it was downwards, which made this golden- robed man move even faster. “Repulsive force!”

However, although he was slowed by the gravity, it was too late, because the golden-robed man had already arrived!

That spiked mace was already in front of him. Linley could even sense a powerful gravitational ﬁeld. “This golden-robed man trains in the Laws of the Earth.” Linley felt a powerful threat from him, and Mirage ﬂipped outwards, ﬁlled with Destruction-type Sovereign power, exploding forth.

The tip of Mirage was smashed head-on by the spiked mace.

“Clang!”

Linley only felt a terrifying force surge from Mirage to the center of his palm. “Rumble…” That terrifying force caused the draconic scales in the center of Linley’s palm to shatter, and blood oozed out. Mirage was smashed towards Linley’s shoulders, while the spiked mace continued to descend.

Pressing down with Mirage, it smashed heavily against Linley’s shoulder.

And this was after Linley had frantically used Mirage to block; otherwise, the mace would have smashed into his head.

“A Sovereign weapon!” Linley was completely certain that the spiked mace was a Sovereign weapon! “BANG!”

Draconic scales shattered, bones splintered, and blood ﬂew in the air. Linley’s left arm was broken off, while Linley himself smashed towards the ground like a meteor at high speed. With a ‘swoosh’ sound, he entered the ground, leaving behind just a large tunnel. As for the golden-robed man with the spiked mace, he didn’t hesitate at all, immediately following into the tunnel.

“BOSS!” Bebe, seeing this, stared with a changed look on his face.

Linley’s power had reached the commander level, but he was considered one of the weakest commanders. Against a powerful commander who had a Sovereign weapon and who was extremely strong in the Laws of the Earth, Linley was going to be trampled to death.

“Bang!” Bebe was knocked ﬂying as well. But Bebe was completely injured, and he couldn’t be bothered to use his innate divine ability to take revenge on his attacker. Bebe’s ﬁrst reaction was to dive into the tunnel which Linley was smashed through. “Boss, no matter what, you can’t die!” Bebe hurriedly ﬂew underground.

Actually, from the start of the battle till now, Montelo’s side had no idea that Bebe was the Godeater Rat! After all, during that moment of crisis when Bebe used his innate divine ability earlier, he had been within the mountain. No one outside could see it. In addition, Bebe’s ‘signature’, his straw hat, had been destroyed during the battle with Bayer.

Although Bebe could use divine energy to form another one, Bebe had just ﬁnished a life-and-death battle and wasn’t in the mood to make another one yet.

Without having a straw hat, Montelo and the others weren’t able to recognize him.

If they knew that Bebe was a Godeater Rat, perhaps Montelo would have changed the plan. After all, they had people with soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts. But unfortunately, they didn’t know who Bebe was.

“BOOM!” That enormous spiked mace came smashing down once more.

Linley’s Mirage sword once more blocked.

“BANG!” Linley was once more smashed downwards, but fortunately, during the past ﬁve centuries of training, Linley had made some improvements with regards to the Laws of the Earth. He had reached a bottleneck in fusing the four profound mysteries, and although he had yet to make a breakthrough, his power had already increased signiﬁcantly. Thus, faced with the attack of such a powerful expert, he didn’t immediately die.

Instead, he was able to just barely rely on Mirage to preserve his own life.

Unfortunately… In terms of weapons, his was slightly inferior.

Both he and the enemy used Sovereign’s Might.

As for the Laws, clearly the enemy surpassed him! Although within the Blackstone Space, the enemy was simply too close. Linley was continuously descending, while the enemy continuously smashed downwards with his spiked mace from above.

“BANG!”

Yet another smash.

Linley just barely blocked, but he was once more smashed downwards, his body blasting through the earth and the rocks, continuing to go deeper.

“I can’t go any deeper! If I go any deeper, I’ll encounter spatial tears.” Linley knew very well that the underground of the Planar Battleﬁeld was very dangerous. Once one reached a certain depth, one would encounter spatial tears. The deeper one went, the more spatial tears there would be, until one ﬁnally fell into chaotic space.

“Haha, your ability to resist isn’t bad! If I can’t kill you, then I’ll send you into chaotic space.” A savage voice rang out in Linley’s mind.

“BANG!”

Yet another mace blow smashed downwards!

Linley was barely able to block, but his palm was already covered with blood, and his body was covered by it as well. Although this was slow to describe, in truth, from the moment Linley’s began fell into the ground until now, only a moment had passed. After all, the golden-haired man was constantly smashing down with his mace, giving Linley no chance to rest at all. At this dangerous moment… Around Linley’s body suddenly appeared an enormous Azure Dragon Phantom. The golden eyes of the Azure Dragon stared towards this golden-robed man, Oman.

Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar.

But just as he used his innate divine ability, that Oman launched yet another vicious mace blow downwards. “BANG!” Linley’s body once more sank downwards. Given Linley’s current level of power, all he could do was ensure that he wouldn’t be smashed to death. There was no way he could prevent himself from being knocked downwards.

“Crackle…”

A long spatial tear that was tens of meters long and half a meter wide slashed past Linley’s body. Quite a bit of earth disappeared before the tear vanished.

Linley couldn’t help but feel cold. “Not good. I’m almost at the limit.” Linley instantly understood that if he went down any further, the spatial tears would become even more common. In addition, with each vicious downwards blow of the spiked mace, Linley would be smashed at least a few dozen meters or even a hundred meters. He was already at the limits; if he sank another few dozen meters or a hundred meters, he probably would have truly been pushed into chaotic space.

“You really are able to resist. But…down you go.”

The golden-robed man, who had already escaped the temporal impact, once more sank downwards, the spiked mace in his hand once more mercilessly smashing down towards Linley.

“Rumble…” A strange energy instantly surrounded the golden-robed man.

Innate divine ability – Godeater! “Motherf*cker, die!” An enraged bellow rang out. Bebe, at this critical moment, had ﬁnally arrived. At the same time, he gave a vicious kick towards the golden-robed man, who launched a backhand blow. With a ‘bang’ sound, Bebe was smashed through the nearby earth.

“Bebe.” Linley hurriedly ﬂew towards Bebe.

“What sort of attack was that?” The golden-robed man was disdainful. “How come I didn’t feel a thing?” The golden-robed man had been staring at the below Linley when Bebe had used his innate divine ability. He didn’t see the illusion of a Godeater Rat, so he naturally didn’t know how powerful this attack was.

As for the ‘Godeater’, in the face of the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact of the golden-robed man, it was like an egg smashing into a rock. It was useless.

The golden-robed man didn’t understand how powerful that attack had been. He thought it was an ordinary strike.

“Swoosh.” Linley already arrived by Bebe’s side.

“Boss, this person isn’t affected by my innate divine ability.” Bebe sent mentally.

“Haha, the two of you, die together.” That sound rang out in Linley and Bebe’s mind, while his ﬁgure arrived in front of them.

Suddenly…

“Rumble!” Out of nowhere, a ten meter long, one meter wide, terrifying spatial fracture appeared between Linley, Bebe, and the golden-robed man. Terriﬁed, the golden-robed man didn’t dare to draw any closer. If he were to charge into the spatial fracture, then he really would enter chaotic space.

But the strange thing was…

A tiny black shadow actually ﬂew out from the spatial fracture, moving as fast as lightning. This black shadow ﬂew out of the spatial fracture towards the direction of Linley and Bebe.

Linley’s ﬁrst reaction was to stretch his hand out and grab it.

“Eh?”

After grasping this black blur, Linley felt a surge of unusual energy enter his body. As for the nearby Bebe, he clearly saw what this black blur was; this was a seemingly ordinary, but very beautiful crown. Only, the crown had lost its luster long ago, and the sunken cavities for the jewel settings of the crown were all empty. Clearly, the jewels were long gone, and the crown had lost its beauty.

Chapter 33, A Battle

If this tattered crown had been lying on the ground, Linley wouldn’t even have given it a glance.

It was incredibly tattered, and the gemstone settings of the crown were all empty. It had no particular aura either. At ﬁrst glance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary crown made in a material plane. Deity artifacts or Sovereign artifacts…all artifacts that had been nurtured by power would generally have some unique auras.

Even cheap items such as inkstones and netherstones had unique auras.

But this crown was as ordinary as a material item.

But when Linley took the crown into his hands, a unique energy was transmitted into Linley’s body. This energy was very unusual; it was like spring rain falling over Linley’s wounds. Instantly, Linley’s shattered arm as well as many of his upper body wounds began to heal and close at an astonishing rate.

In an instant!

Aside from a small wound which remained on his chest, the other parts of Linley’s body, including his shattered arm, were all completely healed.

“How can that be?” Bebe was shocked as well. He too felt that this was inconceivable.

The stronger a body was, the harder it was to repair it. Linley’s Dragonformed body, although inferior to Bebe’s, far surpassed the power of most Highgod artifacts. How could it be so easily healed?

“Boss, what’s going on? How did your wounds suddenly heal so quickly? Also, that small wound on your chest, why didn’t it heal?” Bebe hurriedly sent through divine sense. “Is it connected to that weird, tattered crown?”

Linley was feeling stunned as well.

“Bebe, I’m not sure either. Within this tattered crown, there was a strange energy which entered my body. Indeed, in an instant, it healed my wounds. But it seemed as though there was only a little bit of energy; it was all used up before fully repairing the damage done to my chest.” Linley sent back through divine sense.

After having ﬁnished transmitting energy, the tattered crown no longer had any more energy remaining.

Resting in Linley’s hand, this tattered crown once more appeared completely unremarkable. But Linley still clearly remembered that feeling when the tattered crown had transferred energy to him. “This tattered crown ﬂew out from that spatial tear. Clearly, it ﬂew out from chaotic space. For something to be able to remain within chaotic space without shattering…this tattered crown should be made from a material that is stronger than Highgod artifacts.”

Linley knew how dangerous chaotic space was. Spatial tears abounded, and that sort of tearing power would destroy Highgod artifacts, transforming them into dust.

But the tattered crown hadn’t been destroyed.

This alone was proof that it was unusual.

“What’s that?” The golden-robed Oman stared at the crown in Linley’s hand, then let out a loud, cold laugh. “Haha…your luck isn’t bad. This crown actually passed through a spatial tear and arrived here. It should be a Sovereign artifact. I imagine that in the past, when commanders battled here, a commander died in a spatial rift and the Sovereign artifact was lost within. But from the looks of it…this Sovereign artifact is damaged.”

With a ﬂip of his hand, Linley stored the tattered crown into his interspatial ring.

This wasn’t the time to analyze the tattered crown.

“Bebe, seize the opportunity. Let’s hurry up and ﬂee. Don’t waste time with this fellow.” Linley once more controlled his Blackstone Space, ﬁlling it with Destruction-type Sovereign power and generating a powerful repulsive force that was applied to the body of that golden-robed Oman. “This big, golden-robed fellow isn’t even phased by my innate divine ability. He really is hard to deal with.”

Bebe didn’t want to tussle with this big fellow either.

Linley and Bebe hurriedly ﬂew into the air, while at the same time changing the direction towards which they were ﬂying.

The repulsive force changed to be an upwards force!

Oman couldn’t help but moved, although he quickly became accustomed to this gravity.

“You want to escape?” Oman stared at the enormous spatial rift in front of him. He ﬁrst ﬂew upwards, wanting to ﬂy up and over the spatial rift. In the Planar Battleﬁeld, especially at such a depth, even an expert such as Oman had to be careful. Otherwise, if he slipped and fell into a spatial rift, that would be terrifying.

But just as he ﬂew up towards the space above the spatial rift…

The upwards gravitational force suddenly transformed into a downwards force!

“Die!” Linley, who had been preparing for this the entire time, howled furiously in his mind.

One can imagine how powerful the gravity of this Blackstone Space that was formed from Sovereign power was. Although Oman was one of the powerful Emissaries of the Chief Sovereign of Light, he had originally been resisting the upwards gravitational pull; naturally, the energy in his body was pointed downwards, so as to cancel out that force.

But the gravity suddenly changed from upwards to downwards! Instantly, his own internal downwards energy joined forces with the downwards gravity! Oman had held the upper hand this entire time. Although he was careful, this sort of sudden, contrasting change caused Oman’s body to suddenly sink as well!

What was below him? An enormous spatial rift!

“Uh!” The golden-robed Oman was caught off guard. His face couldn’t help but change. He, too, could sense the astonishing attractive power of that spatial rift. Instantly, a white light exploded forth from his body. “BANG!” The spiked mace trembled violently, causing the nearby space to distort.

By relying on the counterforce, Oman was able to escape the spatial rift.

“Those two bastards.” Although Oman had escaped in a short period of time, Linley and Bebe had already ﬂed more than two or three hundred meters away.

“I swear I’ll kill you two.” Oman bellowed furiously, then chased in pursuit.

Linley and Bebe had, for now, escaped one tribulation, but on the earth above them, Reisgem and Reihom were in absolutely dire straits.

“Haha…”

Montelo’s loud laughter echoed in the air, while at the same time, thousands of tough strands of silk snaked outwards from him, entangling Reisgem. The greatest problem wasn’t just that these strands were tough; they were fast! Every single strand was as fast as a ray of light when it shot out.

They constantly entangled towards Reisgem.

“Montelo, if you have any ability, ﬁght me head on. All you can do is rely on this sort of detestable technique. How can that be considered proof of ability?” Reisgem’s longspear also danced about in a blur, constantly shattered and breaking many of the strands. Unfortunately, although he might destroy a thousand strands, ten thousand more would emerge from Montelo’s body.

As long as Montelo’s Sovereign power wasn’t used up, he was in no danger of running out of strands. Although Montelo didn’t have as much Sovereign’s Might as Reisgem did, an inexhaustible supply, he was still a member of the Augusta clan, and as a talented expert of the clan, he naturally was treated very well and had quite a bit of Sovereign’s Might.

“I don’t have the ability to kill you.” Montelo hovered there in midair, smirking as he sent mentally. “On my side, in one- on-one combat, only Oman poses a major threat to you. But we aren’t prepared to kill you. Our mission is to kill your three comrades. Haha…I imagine that those two comrades of yours who went underground are already dead.”

Reisgem’s face turned rather white.

He understood how powerful these experts of the Augusta clan were. The Augusta clan’s experts were divided into the actual members of the Augusta clan, as well as the Emissaries of the Chief Sovereign of Light. These Emissaries would assist the Augusta clan as well. As for Oman, he was himself an Emissary of the Chief Sovereign of Light, and an exceedingly strong one at that.

“GRAAAAAAAWR!”

A furious bellow rang out.

“BOOM!” Suddenly, the entire earth trembled and rose upwards, as large amounts of boulders emerged from the ground, shooting everywhere.

“Reihom.” Reisgem’s face changed.

Oman went to pursue Linley and Bebe, while Montelo was tying up Reisgem. Then…there were six people against Reihom! Although the six were not commanders, they clearly had the power of commanders. Even Reisgem would ﬁnd it hard to endure the combined assault of those six. “Hey, that fellow of yours is quite powerful.” Montelo smirked.

“It won’t be so easy for you to kill Reihom.” Although Reisgem was worried, he still held hope in his heart, because Reihom was the most powerful Emissary in service to his mother. Although Reihom was always quite taciturn, his strength…was extraordinarily frightening.

And right now, Reihom had entered a berserk state!

“GRAAAAAWR!” Yet another growl, and Reihom’s body suddenly expanded dramatically.

Standing on the ground, Reihom had actually transformed into a tower-like brute that was ten meters tall. His ﬁsts were like two meteors, wildly smashing in every direction. Every single ﬁst carried exceedingly terrifying power, and even the six attacking him didn’t dare to casually block those ﬁsts.

Space twisted as every single punch caused explosive tears in space to appear.

The power was so great as to make one’s face change.

Reihom’s entire body was glowing with a bizarre, golden yellow tattooed glow. Someone close to Reihom would realize that these golden tattoos actually formed into a strange shape that looked like a ﬁst. Upon seeing this, the six attackers couldn’t help but frown, and their hearts sank as well.

The countless planes had given birth to some truly strange lifeforms.

For example, metallic lifeforms or plant lifeforms. In turn, Volcano Titans and World Titans were exceedingly rare; they were all extremely strong races. As for Reihom, he was one of the extremely rare ‘kings’ of the World Titan race. Generally speaking, the creatures known as ‘World Tyrants’ were born with the ability to control the earth and to control stones, and were able to absorb all sorts of mineral essences to strengthen their body. “So there was an expert like him present!” The six only now grew cautious.

Reihom was a person who never revealed himself. Ever since his friend, ‘Bosley’, had been killed, he had begun to accompany Reisgem in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Neither Linley nor anyone else knew much about this Reihom.

“All of you, die.”

Reihom’s eyes glowed with yellow light, and his enormous ﬁsts smashed heavily towards his foes, each ﬁst containing the power to tear space apart and cause it to shatter. He had been born with limitless brute strength, and he had fused ﬁve of the profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. He also had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact; he truly was very powerful.

“Haha, everyone, let’s see who is the ﬁrst to kill him.” That silver-robed woman, ‘Ranessa’, laughed loudly.

Although Reihom was mighty, the six enemies weren’t weak either. And, there were six of them! All supreme experts.

“Hmph!” A green-haired maiden suddenly moved at exceedingly fast speed, dodging the heavy blows of the ‘titanic’ Reihom, but just after she dodged Reihom’s ﬁst, Reihom’s right arm suddenly twisted, and his elbow smashed heavily towards the green-haired woman. This attack was so fast that the green-haired maiden only had enough time to use her own ﬁst to block.

Her dainty little ﬁst, covered with a black glove, collided with the hammer-like elbow!

“BANG!” The green-haired maiden’s body was smashed underground, creating a deep hole.

As for Reihom, a large tear suddenly appeared in his elbow as well. It looked terrifying, but it didn’t shed a drop of blood, and in the blink of an eye, it was repaired.

“Swoosh.” The green-haired woman ﬂew out from underground. “This fellow’s body is too tough. My Sovereign weapon is only able to wound him. Everyone, be careful.” The green- haired maiden sent mentally. Instantly, the other ﬁve began to launch attacks wildly. Although multiple wounds and holes began to appear on Reihom’s body, Reihom instantly healed

them all.

It wasn’t just material attacks; the six launched soul attacks as well!

“It’s useless. This big fellow probably has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” A white-robed man sent mentally.

For the moment, no one knew what to do.

“Everyone, I’ll tie up this big fellow momentarily. I’ll leave the part of killing him up to you ﬁve.” Ranessa sent mentally, a hint of a cold smile on her face. Ranessa’s formerly beautiful maiden’s ﬁgure suddenly became surrounded by the blurry illusion of an enormous octopus.

Suddenly, her innate divine ability descended.

“Ah….” Reihom felt as though his entire body was suddenly constricted by an incomparably sturdy rope. Space twisted and distorted, pressing down upon him. Reihom howled angrily, and his steel-like muscles bulged violently, seeking to break free from his restraints.

“Swish!” “Swish!”

Two ﬁgures struck virtually simultaneously towards Reihom’s head; these two were the green-haired maiden and a cyan-robed youth. The green-haired maiden used her ﬁsts, while the cyan-robed youth used a broad warblade.

The green-haired maiden’s ﬁst struck out with full power….

“Crackle…” The broad warblade glowed with water-type Sovereign power, easily tearing through space and chopping towards Reihom’s head.

“GRAAAAAAWR!” Reihom roared furiously.

“BOOM!”

The ﬁst and the warblade landed on Reihom’s head. With a ‘boom’ sound, Reihom’s head was struck head on by two mighty Sovereign artifacts, and it ﬁnally blew apart, sending shattered fragments everywhere. But strangely enough, no divine spark fell out.

“Careful!” A panicked cry rang out in the minds of the two.

Reihom’s two terrifying ﬁsts were already swinging at them!

Chapter 34, A Battle of Attrition?

The green-haired maiden and the cyan-robed youth weren’t able to dodge in time. Their ﬁrst reaction was to use their Sovereign artifacts to block. The two massive ﬁsts slammed over, pressing down like two small mountains.

“BOOM!” “BOOM!”

Two weighty smacking sounds. The green-haired maiden and the cyan-robed youth were both smashed underground, but immediately afterwards, the two ﬂew out from underground, hovering in midair close to their four companions.

“We were wrong.” Ranessa somberly sent mentally to the other ﬁve. “This big fellow is a World Tyrant, not a human! If he was in human form, then his head would indeed be his weak point, where his soul would be. But he is currently in World Tyrant form, and his weak point is his ‘core’! The soul is within his core, and his divine spark is within it as well!” It was just like the Flame Tyrant which Linley had originally encountered in the Necropolis of the Gods in the past. Even though the Flame Tyrant’s entire body had been shattered, he still didn’t die. The Flame Tyrant’s weak spot was that translucent stone; that was the core!

This sort of metal or rock-based lifeform all had an important ‘core’ component.

The soul was contained within it, and after becoming a Deity, their divine spark would be added to it as well! As long as the core was destroyed, they could be killed!

“Haha, so that’s the case.” The cyan-robed youth began to laugh loudly. “Since we know where his weakness is, killing him will be easy now.”

“I’ll use my innate divine ability one more time. The rest will be up to you.” Ranessa sent mentally to the other ﬁve. Actually, even if Ranessa didn’t use her innate divine ability, the six would still be able to kill Reihom; after all, Reihom only had two ﬁsts, and wouldn’t be able to block six people at once. Those six were entirely capable of smashing a giant hole into his chest, then charging in and destroying the core!

However, using the innate divine ability to bind Reihom, then kill him would be much easier.

“That comrade of yours is quite powerful. A World Tyrant. For this sort of monstrous lifeform to reach such a level in profound mysteries is quite rare.” Montelo clearly was quite amused. He was completely conﬁdent that his side would be able to easily kill Reihom; they just miscalculated earlier, that was all.

“Not good!” Reisgem felt that the situation was bad as well.

Last time, they had smashed apart Reihom’s head; the next time, the six would deﬁnitely attack Reihom’s core.

“GRAAAAAAAWR!” Reisgem couldn’t help but release an enraged roar, and behind him, the illusion of an enormous amethyst beast suddenly appeared behind him.

Innate divine ability – Amethyst Rampart!

Rays of amethyst light ﬁled with black Sovereign power spread out, forming a black cocoon. However, this giant black cocoon wrapped itself around Montelo. Actually, the shape of the Amethyst Rampart, as well as the target it wrapped around, was completely up to Reisgem. Just like that, for a moment, Montelo became trapped within the Amethyst Rampart and unable to break out.

Reisgem regained his freedom!

“Reihom, quick, ﬂee!” Reisgem sent through divine sense.

At the same time, Reisgem shot out like an arrow, and as he did so, that amethyst longspear once again appeared in his hands. His right arm swung out in an arc, throwing the longspear forward. The amethyst light ﬂashed forward at an astonishing, terrifying speed, striking towards that silver- robed woman, ‘Ranessa’. Ranessa had no choice but to swing back with her two arms.

“Clang!” The violet light smashed against Ranessa’s arms, and Ranessa was knocked ﬂying into the air.

Ranessa dared to block like this, because she had something to rely on; she had a single Sovereign artifact, a defensive Sovereign artifact.

Although Ranessa wasn’t killed, since she was knocked aside, her innate divine ability was disrupted midway through.

“Reihom, quick, let’s go!” Reisgem said frantically.

“Out of the way!” A keening howl. The green-robed maiden’s body ﬂashed forward, and she appeared before Reisgem. She seized the opportunity to attack Reisgem, while Reisgem’s Sovereign weapon was still ﬂying back towards him. He could only let out a low growl as he stretched his hand out, viciously smashing forward… Reisgem’s crystalline palm was covered with black light. It looked like a casual blow, but it swept forward towards that tender little ﬁst like a tornado.

“BANG!” A low, echoing sound. Reisgem was knocked backwards, while at the same time, with a ‘crunch’ sound, bones snapping could be heard.

“Crackle….” Reihom’s body quickly shrank.

A blurry black light shot out from Reisgem’s body, forming an Amethyst Space that was a thousand meters across, and a powerful gravitational force was generated, causing the seven enemies to unconsciously tremble.

“Don’t let himi escape. Kill him!” Ranessa shouted mentally.

“Let’s hurry and leave.” Reisgem couldn’t be bothered with anything else, immediately ﬂeeing with Reihom frantically. “WHAP!” A long whip snaked out, striking onto Reihom’s body; the others were already in pursuit.

“Don’t even think of escaping!” By now, Montelo had broken out of the Amethyst Rampart, and countless white strands of light once more shot towards Reisgem.

“Grrr…..”

Reisgem turned his head and let out a furious roar. Instantly, a large amount of Destruction-type Sovereign power spread out, forming an enormous web. This was, once again, his innate divine ability, ‘Amethyst Rampart’. This enormous Amethyst Rampart spread out towards the seven pursuers, but unfortunately, the seven maintained some distance from each other, and so it couldn’t completely envelop them. It only surrounded four of them, while three ﬂed, one of whom was Montelo.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Reisgem and Reihom ﬂed at high speed.

“Chase!” Montelo shouted.

Reisgem knew that the situation was bad, but he knew…“Linley and Bebe are underground and are being attacked by Oman. Although Oman is very powerful, Bebe’s defense is strong as well. He deﬁnitely won’t die.” As Reisgem ﬂed, he also raised his head and howled loudly, “Linley! The two of you, hurry and ﬂee for your lives! If we have the chance, we’ll meet again!”

That furious roar shook the heavens!

Underground, Linley and Bebe were ﬂeeing in sorry shape as well. Oman clearly was an expert who trained in the Laws of the Earth, and his underground senses were quite accurate. Although by relying on the Blackstone Space, Linley and Bebe were able to maintain a distance of a few hundred meters, Oman was still able to easily locate where the two of them were.

Oman was ﬁxed on Linley and Bebe, unwilling to let them go.

“Linley! The two of you, hurry and ﬂee for your lives! If we have the chance, we’ll meet again!” This thunderous roar echoed even underground, and both Linley and Bebe heard it.

“Boss, it seems like Reisgem isn’t doing that well either.” Bebe sent mentally.

“There’s only a single person chasing after us. There are seven others after them! Perhaps the seven don’t dare kill Reisgem, but they’ll dare to kill Reihom. Let’s go. Let’s not just stay in this region.” Although Linley was currently ﬂeeing, he was consistently running around in circles. He had been hoping to be able to escape alongside Reisgem and Reihom.

But now, it seemed, the situation was already terrible and that there was no choice but to have everyone split up.

Whoosh… Linley and Bebe didn’t care which direction they had to ﬂee towards; they selected one and accelerated, ﬂying outwards in a straight line.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” The two suddenly emerged from the ground.

“The two of you, don’t even think of escaping.” Oman surged out from underground at almost the same instance.

Linley and Bebe turned to look. Oman was actually following from just a few hundred meters behind. That distance could be traversed by commanders, given their speed, in just the blink of an eye. Linley and Bebe were unable to escape Oman’s ﬁeld of vision; now that they were aboveground, Oman could track them with his eyes.

Underground, Oman was able to rely on his senses and attunement to the earth to locate where Linley and Bebe were.

Bebe bellowed, “Hey, Oman, aren’t you tired, chasing us like this?” “I’m bored to death here in the Planar Battleﬁeld anyhow. I’m in no rush. Even if I have to chase for two more days, I’ll catch up to you two.” Oman seemed to be quite relaxed, and snickered, “In terms of speed, you two are much slower than me! If it weren’t for the fact that you are able to rely on something similar to Reisgem’s Amethyst Space, how would you be able to shake me off?” As he spoke, Oman drew parallel to Linley and Bebe; only, the two maintained a distance of a

few hundred meters.

Oman’s natural speed was indeed faster than Linley and Bebe’s.

But in the Blackstone Space, there was no way Oman was able to draw close to Linley.

“If you just chase like this, you’ll never be able to catch us.” Bebe said loudly.

“Once you run out of Sovereign power, even if you have this gravitational space, it won’t be able to stop me.” Oman snickered.

Indeed. Without Sovereign power behind it, the power of the Blackstone Space would drop dramatically. Oman, by relying on his own Sovereign power, was completely capable of resisting the Blackstone Space to draw closer to Linley and Bebe.

“Haha…you want to use up our Sovereign power?” Linley couldn’t help but laugh loudly. “Mr. Oman, just keep chasing.”

Linley was in no rush either. He continued to ﬂee in a straight line, moving farther and farther away from the original site.

Moments later…

Linley’s Sovereign power ﬁnally was used up, and the black aura emanating from Linley’s body vanished. “Haha!” Oman laughed loudly, moving lightning-fast into the Blackstone Space’s zone. Indeed, the power of the gravity of the Blackstone Space was now much weaker, and although Oman was slowed down, he was still a good deal faster than Linley and Bebe. “Prepare to die.” Oman was currently in an excellent mood. He was ﬁnally going to kill these two hard-to- deal-with punks.

But right then…

“BANG!” Linley’s body once more radiated a black glow, and instantly, the power of the Blackstone Space increased yet again. Linley and Bebe both increased in speed as well.

“More Sovereign’s Might.” Oman was stunned, and his speed lessened.

“Oman, you want to compete with us in Sovereign power attrition?” Bebe snickered. “Go for it. We’re happy to oblige.”

At the same time, the scope of the Blackstone Space shrank, down from ﬁve hundred meters to one hundred meters. This scope was enough to guarantee their safety; although the size was less, the rate at which it used up Sovereign power was slower as well.

“It seems you have quite a bit of Sovereign’s Might.” Oman was rather hesitant now.

“Of course. My bro Reisgem is the son of the Redbud Sovereign.” Bebe snickered. “Come, I want to see how much Sovereign’s Might the Chief Sovereign of Light gave you.”

Oman was stunned.

He knew how much Sovereign’s Might Reisgem possessed. As Sovereigns saw it, if an Emissary died, they could ﬁnd another one; they didn’t care at all, unless it was someone who was a Paragon or at Beirut’s level. Thus, they couldn’t possibly give their Emissary’s that much Sovereign’s Might. To give a few dozen drops at once was a sign of great favor already.

But for the Sovereign’s children?

Oman knew that the second and third generation members of the Augusta clan each had large amounts of Sovereign’s Might, and that was despite the fact that there were more than a thousand members in the second and third generation. As for Reisgem, there was just him; how much Sovereign’s Might did he have, then? As many commanders saw it, Reisgem was an absolute tycoon. They envied him! But Reisgem was no fool; aside from his friends and brothers, he would never hand out Sovereign’s Might to others.

“Can it be that Reisgem gave a large amount of his Sovereign’s Might to these two?” Oman wondered.

Prior to this, he hadn’t considered this possibility, because in his heart, he always viewed Sovereign’s Might as being precious. He had considered things from his own viewpoint; he wouldn’t be willing to give it to his friends. He had forgotten, however…that from Reisgem’s viewpoint, the situation was different.

“Continuing after these two is nothing more than a waste of Sovereign’s Might.” Oman frowned. “I’m not going to compete with them!” Oman didn’t say a single word; he very straightforwardly turned and left. In virtually the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the horizons of the battleﬁeld.

Only now did Linley and Bebe come to a halt.

“He left?” Bebe began to laugh.

“He wasn’t willing to use up his Sovereign’s Might.” Linley sighed. It really was different, having so much Sovereign’s Might. In the past, he was extremely careful in how he used it; unless it was a life-or-death situation, he wouldn’t use it.

“We’ve used two or three drops, but the canteen is virtually unchanged.” Linley sighed to himself.

Two or three drops, to a canteen, was like a single hair on the skin of an ox.

“Boss, we’ve split up with Reisgem and Reihom.” Bebe said with a frown.

Linley stared at his surroundings; it was silent and desolate.

“It’s up to luck. We’ll see if we encounter them again.” Linley said with a frown. “Right now, we need to ﬁnd a pace to rest. I haven’t had a chance to carefully inspect that crown yet. Let’s go!”

Chapter 35, A Rock

Two black blurs were moving forward at high speed, while right behind them were seven other blurs, chasing and attacking. Only, the seven behind the two were some distance apart from each other.

“This Reisgem’s speed is too fast. Only you, young master, are just barely able to keep up. The others aren’t able to keep up. What should we do?” A silver-haired elder followed Montelo while sending frantically. The two of them both trained in the Laws of Light, and were specialized in speed. As for the others, they trained in water and Fate, and they weren’t skilled in speed.

“Chase!”

Montelo stared ﬁxedly at the two forms up ahead.

“Rumble…” Suddenly, the earth rose up, and a large number of boulders shot up out of the ground. Every single boulder ﬂowed with black light; clearly, every single boulder contained Destruction-type Sovereign power.

Montelo and his people didn’t care about the boulders, but they didn’t dare to underestimate the power of Destruction- type Sovereign power.

“Bang!” “Bang!”

Montelo and the rest of the seven either dodged aside or smashed the boulders apart. These weren’t too much of a threat to them, but it did slow them down.

“They pulled away yet again!” Montelo narrowed his eyes, anger roiling within his chest. “This Reisgem actually has a helper like him, and is willing to use up a large amount of Sovereign power to use these techniques…” Suddenly, Montelo noticed that the Sovereign power in his body had already slowly dried up. He couldn’t help but sigh to himself. “Forget it. It is enough that we were able to put Reisgem in such a bad situation, this time.”

“Halt!” Montelo barked. After he halted, the other six halted as well.

Although Montelo had used up a drop of Sovereign’s Might, the other six hadn’t used it all up yet. After all, Montelo had immediately used those countless white strands to entangle Reisgem from the very beginning, and had been constantly using up his Sovereign power. Previously, he had used up too much, and so it was only natural that he was the ﬁrst to exhaust it.

“Stop chasing. This is just a waste of Sovereign’s Might. I don’t have enough Sovereign’s Might to just throw it away on Reisgem.” Montelo snickered. “Reisgem, that punk. He’s always so arrogant, but this time, we made him ﬂee in such a sorry shape. That’s enough.”

The silver-robed Ranessa snorted. “It’s enough for you, but we three don’t even have a single badge to show for it.”

Montelo glanced at Ranessa, then chortled, “Ranessa, there will be more chances in the future. Right, in a bit, Oman will return. He deﬁnitely must have killed those two people. If he acquired any badges, we’ll give them to you. What say you?” “I’ll take you at your word.” Ranessa ﬁnally revealed a hint of a smile.

Right at this moment…

“Montelo, I, Reisgem, will remember this!” Reisgem’s bellowing voice could be heard from far away.

Hearing the resentment and anger in that bellow, Montelo wasn’t frightened at all; instead, he began to laugh loudly. He said to the other six, “Haha, everyone, hear that? Reisgem is utterly furious! Last time, we killed that Bosley, but he wasn’t able to do anything to us either. This time, we gave him yet another lesson. Even if I stood right in front of him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to me.”

“Young master, you have a defensive Sovereign artifact. At most, Reisgem will be able to just rant. What can he actually do? Can it be that the Sovereign will interfere for a minor matter like this?” The green-haired maiden laughed. Montelo and Reisgem weren’t able to do anything to each other.

However, Montelo clearly had more assistants than Reisgem did. Thus, it was normal for Reisgem to suffer more losses.

“Mm, Oman’s returning.” Montelo suddenly turned to look.

Montelo’s side currently had six people emanating the aura of Sovereign’s Might. Six auras of Sovereign’s Might was as brilliant a beacon as the sun, here in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Who wouldn’t be able to sense it? Oman was easily able to follow the aura to arrive at high speed to this place.

“Montelo, remember your promise.” Ranessa laughed lightly.

“Of course.” Montelo nodded very conﬁdently.

“Oman.” Montelo smiled as he welcomed him. Although Oman followed him, he was the Sovereign’s Emissary, a wielder of two Sovereign artifacts. He was exceedingly powerful.

Oman landed. “Young master.”

“Right. Earlier, Ms. Ranessa and I agreed that after killing Reisgem’s people, the badges we acquired would go to Ms. Ranessa. Hand over those two badges to me.” Montelo said with a laugh.

Oman shook his head. “I didn’t acquire the badges.”

Hearing these words, Montelo’s face went blank, while the face of the nearby Ranessa turned cold. With a snicker, she said, “Oh. We all know very well how powerful Mr. Oman is; can it be that you weren’t able to kill those two kids? I imagine you killed them and took their badges, but aren’t willing to hand them over.”

Two commander badges were indeed items of great preciousness.

“Hm?” Oman let out a cold snort, turning his head to stare hard at Ranessa. “What did you say? Did you call me, Oman, a liar?”

Ranessa raised an eyebrow, then chuckled, “What, Mr.

Oman, are you trying to use your power to suppress us?”

“If I say I didn’t acquire them, then I didn’t acquire them! Don’t go too far!” Oman snorted coldly. There was no way he could prove something like this.

But clearly, as far as Ranessa was concerned, Oman was an extremely formidable commander, while Linley and Bebe were people who Ranessa had never seen before; they shouldn’t be too powerful. Thus, she was certain that Oman must have killed them.

“Haha…” Ranessa let out a calm laugh. “Since that’s what you say, Mr. Oman, then of course I will believe your words. Let’s leave!” Ranessa clearly knew that there was nothing here for her; how could she be willing to stay?

The other two youths immediately ﬂew away with Ranessa as well.

“They left.” Montelo turned to look at Oman, then laughed, “Oman, now you can tell me; did you kill those two or not?” Montelo believed that Oman had lied earlier as well.

“I really did not.” Oman shook his head. “Those two weren’t weak either. That Azure Dragon clan youth was able to take several of my blows head on without dying. As for that other youngster, his body took a blow head on with my Sovereign weapon, but he didn’t die either. Afterwards, I chased them, but the youth of the Azure Dragon clan had a Gravitational Space ability that was similar to Reisgem’s; I wasn’t able to catch them, so I had to give up.

Montelo frowned. “That youngster took a blow head on with his body? It seems he must have a defensive Sovereign artifact. That youth of the Azure Dragon clan is also capable of the Amethyst Space technique? His relationship with Reisgem must be quite deep. Forget it. Let’s ﬁnd a place to rest, ﬁrst.” Montelo immediately led his group of ﬁve in departing from this place.

In the desolate wilderness, Linley and Bebe were stealthily advancing. Currently, their Sovereign power was already depleted. Earlier, when Linley was radiating Sovereign power, others would easily ﬁnd them, and so Linley naturally had ﬂown forward quickly. Now that the Sovereign power was exhausted, Linley chose to carefully advance.

“Boss, what should we do in the future?” Bebe sent.

“There are two or three more centuries before the ﬁnal battle of this Planar War. I hope that before that, I’ll make a breakthrough and fuse a fourth profound mystery.” Linley knew that every single person who dared to roam across the Planar Battleﬁeld was a top-tier commander. “After I fuse my fourth profound mystery, I’ll go out roaming again. By then, I’ll be strong enough to do so.” A person’s power was dependent on their base strength, their profound mysteries, and their weapons.

For example, Hemmers, whose original form was that of a golden mountain which had been nurtured for countless years by the Divine Earth Plane itself, then birthed. His body’s strength was enormously great, and even without fusing any profound mysteries, he surpassed most Seven Star Fiends and was close to the power of an Asura. This was a reason why he was made a Sovereign’s Emissary immediately upon being born.

After having fused four mysteries, Linley didn’t dare to block his ﬁsts at all.

Even an empty-air punch was capable of penetrating Linley’s chest. The terrifying power of his strikes were already comparable to Highgod Paragons. His base level of strength was simply too great.

Linley’s own base power naturally couldn’t compare to Hemmers. Still, he was still vastly superior to ordinary Highgods.

“Once I increase in strength tenfold, I won’t fear those people any longer.”

Linley and Bebe were looking for a place to rest. They didn’t pay attention to or notice that a piece of rubble that was less than a hundred meters away in the desolate wilderness. The ground had too many of these pieces of stone; who would pay attention to one in particular?

“Someone is ﬁnally coming this way. From the looks of it, the youth is the leader. I’ll ﬁrst ambush and kill him, the strong one, then dispose of the weak one.”

Very suddenly…

“Swoosh!” The rock shot towards Linley at high speed.

Linley, while walking forward, found to his amazement that a rock had suddenly shot towards him. “Someone’s here!” Linley immediately grew cautious. He instantly Dragonformed, while at the same time spread out his Blackstone Space, spreading it to a distance of ﬁve hundred meters. Instantly, the rock that had entered the Blackstone Space sank down, but it was already very close to Linley.

“Bang!”

The rock suddenly disappeared, transforming into a person.

“Another expert of the Laws of the Earth.” Linley was startled as well.

Originally, Linley had thought that someone had shot the rock out towards him…but the rock was actually a transformed expert of the Laws of the Earth. Linley had to sigh in praise at the ability of his ambusher in concealing his aura; it was already on nearly the same level as Reisgem.

A ray of blinding saber-light slashed out, traversing the distance of less than ten meters. In an instant, Linley’s ﬁeld of vision became ﬁlled with nothing but that dazzling saber light.

When that saber chopped out, space itself twisted!

“Clang!”

This dominating, unstoppable blade suddenly emitted a bizarre clanging sound, and its strength weakened as well.

“Eh?” The assassin was stunned. “An invisible sword?” Prior to this, he hadn’t noticed it, but now, with his divine sense spread out, he realized that Linley was holding a sword in his hand, a sword that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye!

“Swoosh!” That assassin, having failed with his ﬁrst saber- chop, immediately turned to ﬂee.

“Lupe [Luo’pu], you are going to ﬂee after failing on the ﬁrst attack?” Linley’s loud, clear laughter rang out. “Better for you to stay here!” After having seen that saber attack, Linley, who had gone through Beirut’s documents, already knew who it was. This was an expert of the Laws of the Earth, Lupe. At the same time, Linley felt a surge of fear; if it hadn’t been for the fact that his Blackstone Space had caused Lupe to reveal his true form a bit earlier and slowed him down, that earlier attack most likely would have put Linley in grave danger.

As soon as Linley’s words came out, the Blackstone Space changed the direction of gravity!

The downwards gravity transformed to pull towards Linley!

“Eh?” The ﬁgure’s speed immediately lessened greatly.

Linley knew what this Lupe’s abilities were; Lupe specialized in subterfuge and stealth! He was also extremely fast! However, now that he was trapped within Linley’s ‘Blackstone Space’, Lupe had met his perfect counter; his speed and his stealth abilities could no longer save him.

“Eh?” Feeling the changing direction of the gravitational pull, Lupe was instantly shocked. “Not good!” Lupe had already begun to feel regret after seeing Linley’s transformation; he was certain that as a member of the Azure Dragon clan, Linley was deﬁnitely capable of the clan’s innate divine ability. “I wouldn’t necessarily be able to defeat this expert of the Azure Dragon clan, and he has a subordinate with him. If we really start to ﬁght…not good!”

He didn’t hesitate any further at all.

“Bang!” Gritting his teeth, Lupe used up his precious, sole drop of Sovereign’s Might. Instantly, a strong earthen yellow glow emerged from his body.

Seeing the situation, Linley didn’t hesitate at all; his body, as well, exploded forth with a black aura. Lupe, amongst commanders, was considered below average in strength; only, he was fairly famous for his stealth abilities, and also extremely fast.

“What? He is using up Sovereign’s Might as well? This Azure Dragon clan punk is really willing…” Lupe, seeing the situation, felt his heart shake.

“This sort of opponent is perfect for practicing against!” Linley sent to Bebe. “Bebe, don’t interfere. This Lupe’s attack power is comparable to mine, but he’s fused more profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth than I have! He’s perfect for training against. I might even gain an insight.”

Bebe snickered back, “Fine, Boss. I’ll just watch.” Bebe intentionally retreated to a distance of a hundred meters, giving Linley and Lupe more than enough space to ﬁght.

Knowing that it was Lupe, Bebe was no longer worried.

“Hmph.” Lupe, seeing the situation, felt rage in his heart. He could tell that the opponents didn’t feel him as being worthy of concern. “If it wasn’t for this Gravitational Space, you wouldn’t even be able to touch me.” Lupe felt the power of the Gravitational Space increase greatly as well; he wouldn’t be able to escape. Since he wouldn’t be able to escape, his only option was to ﬁght!

Chapter 36, Blood Binding, Crown

Lupe trained in the Laws of the Earth, and had fused ﬁve of them.

Of the six profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, the only one he had not been able to fuse with the others was ‘Gravitational Space’. He had completely fused the other ﬁve. After having fused ‘Vitality’, ‘Worldwalking’, ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, ‘Strength’, and ‘Essence of the Earth’, he created an extremely powerful Worldwalking technique, while devising a way so that his spiritual energy would form a continuous loop within his mind, not letting a single hint of his aura leak out.

He had reached an exceedingly high level in stealth and ﬂeeing.

However, whenever there is a gain, there is a loss; his saber attacks contained only four fused profound mysteries. As for ‘Worldwalking’, there was no way for him to fuse that into his saber. “Whoosh!” Lupe moved through the ‘Blackstone Space’ like a slippery ﬁsh, constantly moving about at high speed.

But Linley easily moved to follow him, always blocking in front of him.

“It’s uncertain who will be the one to die.” Lupe growled mentally, and the warblade in his hand silently sliced through the air, chopping towards Linley’s skull. In the instant that Linley’s ‘Mirage’ godspark sword collided with the warblade, with a ‘bang!’, the saber’s energy exploded outwards.

“Bang!”

One saber, one sword!

Linley’s body trembled slightly as he retreated. “Haha, excellent!” Linley laughed loudly, then charged forward again, but unfortunately for Lupe, his weapon was slightly inferior to Linley’s godspark sword. “He’s relying on his weapon.” Lupe also realized that Linley’s weapon was extraordinary. Feeling resentment, Lupe’s eyes turned cold, and suddenly, his index ﬁnger and middle ﬁnger of his left hand suddenly struck out, and a translucent sword- ﬁnger ray shot towards Linley, at a speed so fast that it directly

entered Linley’s mind.

This was a soul attack!

“Haha…Lupe, it’s best if you don’t show off that bit of soul attack prowess you have.” Linley didn’t even care about it. Experts of the Laws of the Earth were never skilled in soul attacks to begin with, and Lupe himself didn’t specialize in soul attacks either. How powerful could his attacks be? Linley, just by relying on his spiritual energy alone, was able to defeat the attack.

Lupe had only attacked in such a way due to having no other options.

“Is that so?” Lupe laughed coldly, his attacks becoming all the wilder. Linley was more than happy to accompany him in the ﬁght.

“Clang!”

Linley and Lupe’s forms constantly exchanged blows, but clearly, the two were on par. As Linley saw it, Lupe’s power amongst commanders really was towards the lower end as well. “He doesn’t even have a single Sovereign artifact; indeed, his only option is to rely on ambushes. However, it is worth my time to learn his sort of stealth techniques.”

Linley could guess that Lupe had deﬁnitely fused ‘Worldwalking’ amongst his profound mysteries.

In addition, that saber blow which held the power in abeyance, then made it all explode forth at once.

“This saber blow can be said to have mastered and executed the Profound Mysteries of Strength to a perfect level.” Linley continued to exchange blows with Lupe, with the intentions of training his swordplay. As for Lupe, his goal was to seize any opportunity to kill Linley and thus get a chance of escaping this battle.

“Slash!”

Linley’s sword shot out.

Lupe actually delivered a backhanded blow with his saber, sliding his saber against the ﬂat of Linley’s sword and pressing down with a blow towards Linley’s body.

“Oh? He’s really going all out.” At this critical moment, only a ‘swish’ was heard and an azure-golden blur seen as Linley’s draconic tail, carrying a terrifying surge of force, smashed viciously against the warblade. In terms of toughness, Linley’s draconic tail wasn’t weaker than Highgod artifacts at all.

The warblade was knocked off-balance. “Slash!” It originally would have struck Linley on his head, but now, it slashed Linley on the chest. After having been struck by the draconic tail, the blow of this saber was now weaker; it just barely broke through the scales, drawing forth a hint of blood. “Slash!”

Linley’s Mirage sliced through Lupe’s head, severing it from his body.

Once one’s head was separated from one’s body, that was virtually a guarantee of death! After all, even though the spirit might be present, the body could no longer be controlled to ﬁght back; it was as good as defeat.

“You were pretty vicious, but the end result was your death.” Linley looked at the ﬂying head.

“If I had a Sovereign artifact, the result would deﬁnitely be different.” Lupe’s head bellowed. He knew that he had to die.

“Swish!” Linley’s Mirage ﬂashed with light, and Lupe’s voice came to a halt, and a thin red line appeared through his head. At this moment, Lupe’s Highgod artifacts, interspatial ring, and a gold badge all fell out.

“If you had a Sovereign artifact, the results would be different?” Bebe ﬂew over, chuckling. “Everyone can say that. If my Boss had a Sovereign-level soul protecting artifact, defensive artifact, and weapon, aside from Paragons, who would he fear?”

Linley shook his head and sighed to himself.

This world was a world where the strong devoured the weak. Strength was exalted. People had to rely on their own abilities to acquire Sovereign weapons as well!

Only the strong would be valued and be made Emissaries, and be bestowed a Sovereign artifact. Only the strong would acquire sufﬁcient military merits and be able to trade for a Sovereign artifact. Everything depended on individual effort. As for the children of Sovereigns, they did indeed have a great advantage, but sometimes luck, too, was part of one’s power. “This Lupe’s ambushing abilities weren’t bad. Unfortunately, once the battle really begins, he’s deﬁnitely one of the weakest commanders. It makes sense that a Sovereign wouldn’t select him as an Emissary.” Linley shook his head and sighed. “Thus, as far as the profound mysteries go, even amongst those who

have fused ﬁve profound mysteries, there are still differences in power.”

There were six profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. Upon fusing ﬁve of them, there were six possible fusion results, with the different fusions resulting in different specialty areas.

“This commander badge was fairly easy to acquire.” Linley collected the gold badge, feeling joy in his heart. “I now have three badges. I’m only lacking for one more.”

“Bebe, let’s go.”

Linley and Bebe moved at high speed, leaving the scene of the battle. A place like the Planar Battleﬁeld was a place where the experts who entered had to be mentally prepared for death. Some experts had to die in order for others to live.

Deep within the heart of an ordinary, large mountain in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Linley and Bebe had carved out a cave for them to temporarily live in. This cave was separated from the outside world by hundreds of meters of mountain rocks; generally speaking, commanders wouldn’t be able to use their divine sense to scan inside here.

But of course, there were three exceptions.

One was if they used Sovereign power to do the scanning.

The second was a Highgod Paragon. They had very large scanning ranges as well.

As for the third, that was Highgod Soul Mutates. Soul Mutates had very special souls, and their souls were generally far stronger than the souls of ordinary Highgods. But of course, there were differences amongst Soul Mutates as well. The chances of a successful soul mutation with two different types of divine power was decent; the vast majority of soul mutates were in possession of two types of divine power, with Olivier being on this level as well. But virtually all individuals who had three types of divine power and yet underwent a soul mutation would die. In the entire Infernal Realm, there was only a single person who successfully underwent and survived a soul mutation with three types of divine power. And as for the soul power of three-power Soul Mutates, it was extraordinarily great!

As for those who underwent a soul mutation while having access to four types of divine power, in the countless planes of the universe, over the countless years, there had never been a single successful case. No one had any idea what the result would be, if a person with four types of divine power underwent a soul mutation.

Within the cave.

Linley was hefting that tattered crown, staring carefully at it an inspecting it. The crown didn’t have a hint of luster to it; if he tossed it into a rubbish pile, even if a Deity noticed it, they wouldn’t pay it any attention.

The nearby Bebe stared at it as well. After a long time, he mumbled, “Boss, is there something special about this tattered crown? Why can’t I see anything special about it? It makes me feel as though it is just an ordinary item.”

“It isn’t.”

Linley shook his head. “Still, I can’t see anything special about it either.”

When Linley had received that surge of unusual energy from the crown, it had healed his wounds. In addition, this thing had ﬂown out from chaotic space; Linley naturally was certain that it was extraordinary.

“I know it’s not ordinary; anything that can survive in and ﬂy out of chaotic space is either a godspark weapon or a Sovereign artifact.” Bebe stared carefully at the crown. “But for it to be in the shape of a crown…as I see it, it should be a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact.” This was Bebe’s judgment. “If it really is a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, given how tattered it is, it should be a damaged Sovereign artifact.” Linley laughed.

If the master of a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact was still alive, there was no way that the Sovereign artifact could be damaged! A damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact meant that the defenses of the artifact had been breached, and the master had died!

“There’s only one option right now.” Linley nodded slightly as he spoke.

“Boss, quick, give it a try.” Beb urged.

The only option was…to bind it with blood!

Linley stretched out his index ﬁnger. With but a thought, a drop of fresh blood oozed out of his skin, then dripped down onto the crown. “Eh?” Bebe stared.

“Eh?” Linley frowned.

The drop of blood hit the crown…and it then it splattered and rolled down onto the ground.

“It wasn’t absorbed?” Linley was puzzled.

“What’s going on? This thing has an owner?” Bebe frowned.

Linley pondered for a moment, then nodded. “There’s one possibility. The owner of the crown might have been ﬁghting in the Planar Battleﬁeld, and then died, with the Sovereign artifact falling into chaotic space. However, the owner of the crown still has a divine clone outside, and so there is no way to bind it with blood.”

“Makes sense! Ah, wait! Boss.” Bebe suddenly said. “This crown is damaged, but there is no way for chaotic space to damage a Sovereign artifact, right? There is no way for Highgods to damage Sovereign artifacts either.”

Linley was stunned. He couldn’t help but nod slightly.

When Highgods did battle, generally speaking, after one died, the Sovereign artifact would be completely undamaged. There was no way for the power of a Highgod to damage a Sovereign artifact.

“Can it be that the owner of this crown was a Sovereign?” This was Linley’s guess. “This crown was then damaged in a battle between Sovereigns, just like my Coiling Dragon ring?”

“If it was a Sovereign, then, the Sovereign deﬁnitely must have fallen.” Bebe said. “If the Sovereign fell, the other Sovereign who killed him deﬁnitely wouldn’t have spared his clones; he deﬁnitely would have pulled up the grass by the roots. This crown should then be an ownerless item. It should be bindable by blood.”

Linley didn’t understand either.

He was able to bind the Coiling Dragon ring with blood, but not this crown.

Still, for now, this was all speculation.

“Forget it.” Linley shook his head. “Bebe, if we can’t ﬁgure it out, let’s not worry about it. Long story short, there’s no way to bind it with blood. Perhaps…this crown isn’t a Sovereign artifact at all.”

“What else, besides a Sovereign artifact, can survive in chaotic space?” Bebe mumbled.

Linley and Bebe couldn’t understand it. Based on the knowledge available to them, the only thing that could survive in chaotic space, aside from Sovereign artifacts and godspark weapons, was perhaps divine sparks! As for ordinary materials made of ores or metals, there was no way they would be able to survive in chaotic space. Unable to get a clear understanding of the crown, Linley had to give up for now. He stored it back into his interspatial ring, and then, based on his earlier line of thoughts, began to train. Only three hundred years remained from now until the ﬁnal battle of the Planar War. Linley wanted to make a

breakthrough in advance.

“That blade blow of Lupe’s…”

Completely storing up all the power, and then letting it all explode forth with amazing force.

“The ﬁsts of Hemmers…”

That utterly unblockable punch…it continued to swirl about Linley’s consciousness.

“That spiked mace of the golden-robed man…” Linley carefully pondered the attacks of that spiked mace as well.

Over the past few years, he had encountered many experts of the Laws of the Earth, such as the Redcliff Lord or Bailey…

Every single one of those experts of the Laws of the Earth had analyzed and developed a supreme technique that belonged to them. But those were their techniques, not his! Still, Linley wanted to discover some of the secrets behind those supreme techniques, hoping to ﬁnd something which would help him suddenly break through the bottleneck he was face. And just like that, Linley began to tirelessly analyze them.

Bebe, utterly bored, just rested there within the cave, his eyes half-lidded as he occasionally munched on fruit. He was currently controlling a Deathgod Golem outside. “It has been three years, but we only encountered a single person. And that person wasn’t someone that was easy to deal with. The weaker people have all hidden away, as cowardly as rats. Uh…wait. I’m a rat as well.”

Bebe suddenly turned to look at Linley.

“Huh?” Bebe’s eyebrows rose slightly.

A large amount of earth elemental essence suddenly appeared around Linley’s body. Slowly, with Linley at the center, it formed into an earthen yellow sphere.

“What’s going on with the Boss?” Bebe didn’t understand.

“Whoosh!”

Very strangely, the earthen yellow aura suddenly contracted, from a size of three meters to just a tiny dot. This sort of high- speed contraction actually caused a spatial tremor, and the ripples from this tremor caused the stones nearby which were within the cave to instantly transform into dust. The entire cave had just transformed into a giant sphere.

At this moment, Linley opened his eyes, a hint of a smile on his face.

“Boss? You…broke through?” Bebe guessed.

Linley looked at Bebe. He nodded slightly.

Chapter 37, Supreme Technique

Bebe was stunned…and then, he was wildly overjoyed. He tossed the half-eaten fruit in his hands to one side. “Haha, Boss, I knew you would deﬁnitely make a breakthrough within three centuries. I was right, wasn’t I? It’s only been three years, but you broke through the bottleneck!” In fusing profound mysteries, the farther one went along, the harder it was.

Once one broke through, it represented that one’s power would rise exponentially!

“I did indeed break through. I broke through before the ﬁnal battle.” Linley felt very excited, from the bottom of his heart. The rise in difﬁculty from fusing three types of profound mysteries to four types was simply too hard. Now, in the Planar Battleﬁeld, he ﬁnally was no longer a bottom-level commander. If he encountered some formidable commanders, he’d be able to give them a ﬁght.

A commander who truly feared no challengers had to be completely ﬂawless. In the past, Linley’s soul defense was weak, but now, in terms of soul defense, he was no longer a weakling, having fused four profound mysteries and also having the support of his innate azure soul glow, as well as that damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. In fact, Linley no longer even feared the soul attacks of experts on the level of Reisgem and Montelo.

But of course…if he ran into any Highgod Paragons, Linley would still have to run. Not just Linley; even if Reisgem encountered a Highgod Paragon, he wouldn’t be able to ﬁght back.

“I wanted to go out and have a wild battle long ago. Now that you made a breakthrough, Boss, let’s head out.” Bebe was absolutely delighted. “We’ve been in this damn place for nearly six centuries. It’s time for we two bros to show our might.” Bebe was utterly brimming with conﬁdence.

Linley just laughed, then shook his head. “Don’t be impatient.”

“How can I not be impatient? I’m impatient!” Bebe pursed his lips intentionally. “You’ve increased your power. Do we still have to hide here?” “No. Although I’ve successfully fused four profound mysteries, I haven’t developed an attack which suits me yet.” Linley laughed.

Fusing different types of profound mysteries would result in different types of powerful attacks.

Some were skilled in support techniques, while others were skilled in soul attacks or material attacks or stealth and subterfuge…in short, after fusing profound mysteries, they would develop techniques suited to them.

In the past, Linley’s primary skills were the ‘Blackstone Space’ and the ‘Firmament Splitter’.

However, Linley had risen in power. His supreme techniques would naturally have to change as well.

“Oh, develop a supreme technique?” Bebe chortled, then sat down by the side of the cave. “Boss, develop as much as you want. I’ll just watch here without saying a thing! Right…it won’t take you too long to develop a technique, will it?”

“I already have some ideas. It should be fairly fast.” Linley said with a laugh.

And then, Linley began to develop his supreme technique. Days passed in constant testing. Linley, for fear of damaging the cave, created a miniature Blackstone Prison, constantly testing within it. Even if energy leaked out from him, it would be kept within the Blackstone Prison.

Utter darkness. Not a hint of light could be seen from the Blackstone Jail.

Linley stood there, his mind ﬂickering through one image after another.

“This material defense should begin with my former ‘Pulseguard Armor’, then modify it…” Linley, in the past, didn’t care too much about material defense, because his Dragonformed body was already powerful enough. However, now that he had fused four profound mysteries, once he used that and Sovereign’s Might to reinforce his supreme defensive technique, the defensive power would be comparable to his Dragonformed body. Naturally, Linley wouldn’t mind adding an extra layer of defense.

Within the dark, lightless Blackstone Prison, Linley continuously analyzed.

“Crackle…”

Divine earth power continued to ﬂow out from Linley’s body. In Linley’s mind, one mechanism after another for using power sprang to mind, and the divine earth power surrounding his body continued to change methods nonstop.

His original body and his divine earth clone joined together in training. After spending eleven days, Linley ﬁnally developed a supreme defensive technique that he was satisﬁed with. “This armor, if formed from divine earth power, is inferior in strength to my Dragonform. However, when relying on Sovereign power, the power exceeds that of Dragonform. Right. This armor formed from divine earth power…I’ll just call it my ‘earth armor’.” Linley couldn’t be bothered to think too much about it, so he casually picked a name, then continued to analyze his soul defense techniques.

Linley cared deeply about his soul defense.

After all, a person’s soul was his foundation. In Linley’s sea of consciousness, a large amount of spiritual power roiled about, and one sort of technique for using energy after another was being tested by him.

The Laws of the Earth were extremely deep and profound. They were divided into six profound mysteries, and mastering each of them individually was nothing more than gaining a basic understanding of the Laws of the Earth. Only by fusing them…could one truly gain a deeper understanding of the Laws. For example, the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ started with increasing to a total of 256 layers, and then was constantly fused and simpliﬁed down into a single wave. It was the same principle…the more one fused the mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, the more thoroughly one understood them. Linley had fused four of them, and this resulted in a major increase in power for him, in both soul defense and material defense.

“A constant, unbroken cycle, advancing on one side, continuing on the other…this sort of soul defense is enough.”

After spending nine days, Linley’s soul defense reached a limit as well. Unless Linley was able to gain an even greater understanding of the profound mysteries, his methods for using the Laws had reached a limit.

“In twenty days, I’ve mastered a way for soul defense and for material defense. Now…I need to focus on the most important of all. A material attack.”

Linley knew very well that as the mysteries he had fused were the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, ‘Essence of the Earth’, ‘Strength’, and ‘Gravitational Space (Geomagnetism)’, the fusion of these were suited most for material attacks. In addition, in Dragonform, his body was incredibly strong; to not use it for material attacks was a huge waste.

Linley immediately began to focus on developing a supreme attacking technique.

Analyzing supreme techniques was quite complicated.

For example, soul defense; it had nothing to do with any part of the ‘Essence of the Earth’. As for material defense, it had nothing to do with ‘Gravitational Space’. Thus, it was much easier to develop techniques.

But supreme attack techniques were different. This would involve all four mysteries.

Time ﬂowed on like water, moving past silently. In the blink of an eye, Linley had spent two full months working in the Blackstone Prison. Within the cave.

“Hmph!” Bebe wrinkled his nose, glancing sideways at the still-present Blackstone Prison. “The Boss said it would be ‘very fast’, but it’s been sixty three days, and he’s still not done.”

Suddenly…

Silently, noiselessly, the Blackstone Prison dissipated, the energy returning to the world and leaving behind a Linley who was dressed in a blue robe and whose eyes were closed. He stood there, still holding Mirage in his hand. Clearly, Linley hadn’t ﬁlled it with his divine power, as one could still clearly see Mirage in his hand.

“Haha!” Bebe immediately hopped over.

Linley opened his eyes and glanced over, his face ﬁlled with smiles. “Boss, you succeeded?” Bebe chortled.

“Right. I succeeded.” Linley laughed and nodded.

“How strong is it?” Bebe said with anticipation.

“Much stronger than before, of course.” Linley said with a calm laugh. “That ‘Firmament Splitter’ of mine only fused two profound mysteries; the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and ‘Strength’. This was because there was no way for me to add the ‘Essence of the Earth’ into it. But…now that I fused ‘Gravitational Space’, I am able to add the ‘Essence of the Earth’ into my attack as well. It now has four types of profound mysteries. The power of this sword is tens of times more powerful than in the past!”

Linley was extremely conﬁdent. In the past, his sword had relied primarily on the strength of his Dragonform, which was why he was able to threaten other commanders.

But now, just by relying on his mastery of the profound mysteries, Linley was able to be on roughly the same level as other commanders. With the added strength of his Dragonform as well as Mirage, Linley was now qualiﬁed to be conﬁdent.

“Hoho, Boss, give it a try, give it a try.” Bebe called out excitedly, staring at Linley.

Linley smiled and nodded.

“When battling, I will ﬁrst set up my Blackstone Space, then use this sword blow.” Linley laughed as he spread out his Blackstone Space and a powerful gravitational. Just as Linley was about to execute his sword blow, upon seeing the earthen yellow aura that was glowing due to his ‘Blackstone Space’, Linley suddenly came to a halt, standing there stupidly.

Bebe was startled, immediately asking, “Hey, Boss, what are you doing?”

But Linley seemed to not have heard him. “What’s the Boss doing? Didn’t he say he was going to show it off for me?” Bebe didn’t understand.

“Haha…”

Linley suddenly began to laugh loudly.

“Boss, what is it, what is it?” Bebe said frantically.

“So I can do it as well. So I can do it as well! I’m too foolish, too foolish!” Linley’s face was ﬁlled with wild joy.

“Boss?” Bebe hurriedly called.

Only now did Linley think of Bebe. Turning his head, he laughed. “Bebe, just now, I suddenly thought of something, which is why I was rather excited.”

“Thought of something?” Bebe frowned.

“Right!” Linley nodded and laughed. “Do you remember how, when we encountered that Highgod Paragon, ‘Bayer’, his attack against you locked your movements, right?”

“Right.” Bebe thought back to that scene and felt helpless once more. “That attack of his…when it came, I felt as though space itself was squeezing me. My speed dropped dramatically. Actually, I was able to move; only, my speed dropped so much, tens of times slower than normal. At such a slow speed, in a real ﬁght, it meant I would be slaughtered.”

Linley chortled. “Just now, when I saw my ‘Blackstone Space’, I suddenly thought that person, I too can make the enemy feel as though space is compressing him, and make him feel like a ﬁsh who was trapped in mud, his speed lowered greatly.”

“Eh?” Bebe didn’t understand. “Boss, your Blackstone Space; the gravity of it faces one direction. How can you compress someone?” Indeed; the power of the Blackstone Space’s gravity would be upwards, downwards, repulsive, or attractive towards Linley.

There was only a single possible direction!

For example, a downwards gravity that trapped the enemy would result in an enemy who, when facing Linley’s sword, would ﬁnd it hard to ﬂy upwards but easily be able to dive underground. Even if he was unable to go underground, his movements forward, backwards, and sideways wouldn’t be impeded much.

But the spatial compression was different.

It made one feel as though one was being compressed from all directions. No matter how you moved, the restrictive power was still astonishingly great, just like being caught in a net.

“Haha…” Linley suddenly started to laugh. “Bebe, I had a taste of that restrictive power back in the Amethyst Mountains.” Linley still clearly remembered how, when he had used Worldwalking in the Amethyst Mountains, he had encountered Reisgem inside the mountain. Afterwards, Reisgem trapped Linley within the Amethyst Space, causing powerful gravity to press down upon and squeeze Linley. Even his bones began to uniformly splinter, and blood ﬂowed outwards. This was a pressure that came from all directions!

“My current sword blow is just like those of other experts of the Laws of the Earth, containing some basic gravitational pull to it. What I need to do is to make it so that the Blackstone Space no longer treats me as its core, and for it to merge into the sword itself.” Linley knew that this would be very hard.

If Linley didn’t understand the principles of ‘Amethyst Space’, and was only able to operate on the basis of his ‘black stone’ in executing the ‘Blackstone Space’, there was no way at all that he would be able to infuse this ability of the Amethyst Space into it.

After all, the ‘black stone’ was within Linley’s body, which guaranteed that if Linley relied on the black stone, the Gravitational Space would only be centered around Linley.

But Linley had a degree of understanding regarding the Blackstone Space.

When he had spent ﬁve centuries in the Amethyst Mountain, Linley had already gained some degree of understanding regarding how to use the 108 rays of divine power. Although the power of him using those rays of power wasn’t as powerful as the ‘black stone’ itself, the difference wasn’t too extravagant.

“Bebe, keep waiting. Wait for me to come up with my next technique! When battle starts, once my sword gets close to someone, it will cause that person to feel as though they are being pressed down upon from all sides! Even if I’m still inferior to Bayer, I wouldn’t be that far off.” Linley was eagerly anticipating his new technique.

Linley immediately once more created his ‘Blackstone Space’, then entered it and resumed his studies. This technique….would trap any enemies in a certain way and compress them.

Once Linley once again used up the Blackstone Prison to analyze this technique, he immediately began to inspect it closely.

This was because his technique used the enemy as the target for compression; thus, there was no way he could rely on the ‘black stone’ to execute this technique. He had to rely on himself!

In addition…

This technique was a perfect match for Linley’s swordcraft.

This developmental cycle was very long. Bebe heard the walls within the ‘Blackstone Prison’ constantly tremble, but fortunately, Linley had blocked off all sound. Within the Blackstone Prison.

Linley, absorbed in his training, had lost all sense of time.

“Slash!”

Linley stabbed out with a simple sword thrust, but Mirage emanated an earthen yellow glow. Immediately, at the location the sword was pointing towards, a three-meter long earthen yellow sphere formed. As Mirage stabbed out, the earthen yellow globe began to, amazingly enough, shrink at high speed.

“BANG!”

An explosion of destruction!

Chapter 38, An Inch of Land, A Foot of Sky

“This space which compresses the enemy can change to be greater or smaller as needed. I ﬁnally mastered this technique.” Linley felt a surge of wild joy in his heart.

The piercing power of this sword was comparable to his original one, but the difference was a sort of binding, restrictive power! This would bind the movements of the enemy, and possibly make it so that they weren’t able to block Linley’s sword at all.

The Blackstone Prison vanished. Bebe immediately turned and ran over with surprised delight. “Boss, you spent nearly half a year coming up with this technique. Give it a try and see how powerful it is?”

“Fine. Let’s give it a test, then.” Linley was rather eager as well. “Don’t hold back. My defense doesn’t even fear Highgod Paragons. Hit me hard.” Bebe raised his head and puffed out his chest as he stood there, even giving Linley a wink.

Linley knew how astonishing Bebe’s defense was. Nodding, he said, “Fine. However, there’s no need for me to Dragonform for now. Give it a try and see if you can use your weapon to block this sword of mine.” As Linley spoke, Mirage appeared within his hands, while that dagger appeared within Bebe’s.

“Come.” Bebe’s eyes were gleaming, and he focused his attention on Linley’s Mirage, staring at it.

“Swish!”

Mirage suddenly became translucent and leisurely stabbed outwards. Bebe raised an eyebrow. He could clearly see 108 rays of earthen yellow divine power emerge from Linley’s godspark sword, Mirage. It was like 108 howling dragons that were engulﬁng him; before he even had a chance to react, the elemental energy of the world began to coalesce at high speed. 108 rays of divine power instantly merged into the surrounding earth elemental essence, forming a sphere that was ﬁve meters in diameter that had him trapped within.

“The constrictive power is quite great.” Bebe felt the tremendous pressure as well.

This was a gravitational force that most Seven Star Fiends would ﬁnd hard to endure; it pressed down from all sides. Even Bebe felt uncomfortable.

Mirage was formless and invisible.

But the spatial ripples that it created impacted Bebe.

“Eh?” Bebe could clearly sense that Mirage was striking towards him. He immediately wanted to move his arm to use his dagger to block it. “This restrictive power really is troublesome.” Bebe felt as though he had a rope tied around his arm, making his speed much slower.” “Slash!”

A sword blow landed straight across Bebe’s chest, and Bebe’s body trembled violently.

“How is it, Bebe?” Linley laughed, then retracted his sword.

“The restrictive power really is pretty large.” Bebe nodded and sighed in praise. “Although it isn’t as terrifying as Bayer’s, it’s far more powerful than a single-direction gravitational force.”

Linley discovered as well that Bebe actually hadn’t been able to use his godspark dagger to block his own blow.

When experts exchanged blows, they generally used a weapon to strike against or block the other weapon. To use one’s own body to take the blow? Aside from a minority of people, most commanders weren’t capable of it. “But the power isn’t strong enough. It just makes me itchy.” Bebe snickered. Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “Bebe, I’m not in Dragonform! After I Dragonform, my power increases dramatically, and the power of this attack will increase dramatically as well! But of course…despite that, I still

won’t be able to injure you.” Linley knew his own limits.

Bebe chortled. “I’m kiddin’, Boss. What’s the name of this technique of yours?”

“To compress the person within a small world, like an inch of land and a foot of sky…making him unable to dodge and thus be forced to receive my blow…right. Let’s call it ‘Microcosm’.” Linley selected a name for his most powerful sword blow.

Microcosm!

Linley believed that in Dragonform, the power of this sword blow of his should be considered above average amongst commanders. Combined with the ‘restrictive’ force, this technique should be considered a high-class technique amongst commanders. Perhaps in raw attack pure, it couldn’t compare to the Sovereign weapons of others, but this technique of Linley’s…made it hard for the enemy to block.

For example, Oman. When he smashed down with his spiked mace, the power was great, true! But by relying on his godspark weapon, Linley was still able to block and just barely hang on. If Oman was capable of Linley’s technique, and to create a powerful restrictive force to make it impossible for Linley to block, he probably would have killed Linley with a single blow.

“Bebe, it’s time for us to go out and take a look.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

The Planar Battleﬁeld was as calm and quiet as ever.

This was a place where there was never any sunlight. No warmth. There was only the endless, cold howling wind. Linley and Bebe quietly moved about the Planar Battleﬁeld. However, after advancing for seven full days, they didn’t see a single ﬁgure. Clearly, the number of people roaming the Planar Battleﬁeld had grown less and less.

“Boss, look. There seems to be someone up ahead.” Bebe suddenly said.

Linley carefully looked forward. That ﬁgure was still a few kilometers away from them, and the luxurious wild grass between them that was being blown about by the wind made it hard for Linley to see that person.

Moments later…

“Him!” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

“It’s actually Hemmers.” Bebe stared as well. They both clearly remembered that freak who had such terrifying defense and attack power, as well as a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Hemmers…he was someone who had become a Sovereign’s Emissary as a Demigod!

“Haha, you two. Don’t run.” Loud laughter rang out.

Linley and Bebe just stood there, not moving at all.

“Bebe, later, just stay over there. Let me spar a bit with this big fellow.” Linley’s gaze was heated, and his battle-hungry blood began to boil. “Although this Hemmers is powerful, his speed is average, and he doesn’t know any distance attacks. He’s perfect for a spar and for me to test out my own might.”

“Fine.” Bebe chortled. “Boss, don’t lose face by ﬂeeing after being unable to take more than a few blows.”

Linley and Bebe had both sparred with Hemmers before. If they wanted to ﬂee, they would be able to.

Three meters tall. A body like that of a tower of steel. Wild gold hair. A towering nose. A tiger-like mouth! A pair of golden eyes which stared at Linley and Bebe. This was Hemmers. Hemmers frowned and snorted, “The two of you are quite bold. Last time, I let you two run off. This time, you actually dare to stay here upon seeing me?” “Hemmers, I’ve made some slight improvements this time, and want to ask you to provide me with a few pointers.” Linley said with a smile.

“Provide you with a few pointers?” Hemmers rubbed his towering nose, grinning and revealing a mouth ﬁlled with golden teeth. “Letting me give you two a few pointers will cost you your lives.”

“Not us two. Just me.” Linley said with a calm laugh. “Hemmers, if you truly do want my life, then come at me.”

Hemmers furrowed his forehead, musing to himself, “Can it be that this kid wants to die? Screw it. If he wants to die, it isn’t my fault.” Hemmers didn’t waste any more words. He violently stomped the ground with his right leg, causing it to tremble. A golden glow sprang out from Hemmers’ entire body, and like a towering golden god of war, he charged towards Linley.

With a ‘bang!’, Linley instantly Dragonformed. He, too, kicked off powerfully from the ground, dodging at high speed.

“He’s increased in speed?” Hemmers instantly noticed Linley’s transformation. His increased insights into the profound mysteries had caused his speed to naturally increase as well.

“Still, he hasn’t increased enough!” Hemmers let out a growl, his legs suddenly ﬂashing with an eye-piercing golden glow.

“Bang!” “Bang!” Hemmers stomped viciously against the ground, which cracked from his stomps. But because the terrifying power of this stomp resulted in a powerful counterforce, Hemmers increased in speed once more…but welcoming him was an earthen yellow aura that spread outwards. Blackstone Space!

Hemmers’ speed lessened dramatically.

Linley knew quite well that he wouldn’t be able to kill Hemmers; this battle between them was only meant for him to familiarize himself with his new supreme technique. “Hemmers, taste this sword blow of mine.” Linley’s voice echoed out in Hemmers’ mind, and Mirage pierced out…

Hemmers turned to look. He saw 108 rays of earthen yellow light suddenly appear out of nowhere, surging towards him simultaneously. Hemmers just snickered. “Your sword is pretty special. It can actually go invisible.” Hemmers, through his divine sense, was clearly able to sense that Mirage was stabbing towards him at high speed.

But as Hemmers wanted to use his ﬁst to smash it, he suddenly felt a powerful, uniform restrictive force. A semi- transparent earthen yellow sphere that was ﬁve meters long had suddenly enveloped him.

“What a powerful restrictive force.” Hemmers furrowed his brows.

Hemmers still swung his ﬁst, slamming it towards Mirage. It had to be said that Hemmers’ innate gifts were inordinately powerful. His strength was truly endless. Even under such incredible pressure, his ﬁsts didn’t slow down too much. In the last instant, his ﬁst, covered with golden light, smashed against Linley’s ‘Mirage’.

“BANG!” The full power of Linley’s blow ﬁnally exploded forth from the sword.

Linley’s most powerful sword attack…Microcosm!

“BANG!” A tear in space appeared.

Linley was knocked backwards, while Hemmers’ body trembled as well. And then, he lowered his head to look at his ﬁst in astonishment. The metal-like skin atop his ﬁst had already split apart, and a hint of blood was leaking out. However, it immediately healed.

Linley stood not too far away, his heart ﬁlled with joy.

Last time, when that golden light had shot out from Hemmers’ ﬁst and struck against Mirage, Linley’s hand had been shaken so badly that his draconic scales had split open, while Mirage had been knocked back to chop against Linley’s own body.

“That time, it was just a golden ball of light. This time, it was with his actual ﬁst! My power increased dramatically, but I only feel as though my hand is going numb. If I were to encounter that Oman again, I wouldn’t be in such a sorry state when I block his spiked mace.” Linley’s conﬁdence surged.

“In addition, my full-force sword attacks are capable of causing the spatial walls of the Planar Battleﬁeld to tear open now.” Linley rejoiced.

Hemmers raised his head to look at Linley solemnly. “You have indeed risen dramatically in power. You are capable of injuring me.” Hemmers knew very well that his ﬁsts had been utilizing the profound mysteries, and how much power they held. If even the skin on his ﬁsts had been broken open…if Linley’s sword had hit another part of his body, he would indeed have been injured.” “But you aren’t truly wounded, right?” Linley’s eyes lit up. “Just now, you were actually able to block my sword. Again!”

Linley’s body suddenly disappeared, and a blur charged towards Hemmers.

“Bang!” “Bang!”

The two clashed repeatedly, and each time they exchanged blows, Linley’s blur-like form continuously moved to retreat, then advance! As for Hemmers, he just stood there; whenever Linley attacked, he used his ﬁsts and his two legs to block. Each time they exchanged blows, Linley was knocked ﬂying backwards.

Neither Linley nor Hemmers used Sovereign’s Might.

“Boss, keep it up!” Bebe called loudly from the side. But as for Linley, he became all the more aware of how terrifying Hemmers was. “Hemmers is absolutely too strong. It’s fair to describe him as possessing endless, inexhaustible might! Even with my restrictive force pressing down on him, he’s actually still able to just barely block my sword.” And in a situation like this, with each blow, the counterforce caused Linley’s hand to go numb.

The strength in those ﬁsts were indeed frightening.

“It’s not very likely that I’ll be able to kill this Azure Dragon clan kid.” Hemmers pondered to himself. “I don’t have a Sovereign weapon! Else, I would’ve disposed of him long ago.”

“Hey!”

Hemmers suddenly shouted angrily, “Kid, if you are so tough, then use that sword of yours to take one of my punches head on! Stop using that restrictive power to affect me.” Hemmers felt very uncomfortable; while constantly under that powerful pressure, there was no way he was capable of fully releasing his power in his punches. If he were to release a punch under optimal conditions… How could Linley be able to block so easily?

“I’m not that stupid.” Linley said with a loud laugh.

“As I see it, you two should just come to a halt!” A clear voice rang out, while at the same time, a ﬁerce, powerful ripple shot towards them at high speed, striking simultaneously against Hemmers’ ﬁst and Linley’s Mirage. This powerful force knocked both Linley and Hemmers back by a few dozen meters.

Linley and Hemmers both turned to look.

They saw that, not too far away, a white-robed man was currently strolling over. His crimson eyebrows drooped downwards, and his gaze was fathomlessly deep. He currently gave Linley and Hemmers each a glance.

“Where did someone so powerful suddenly come from? There’s nobody who is like him amongst the various supreme experts of the planes of the universe!” Hemmers’ face changed dramatically. He was very conﬁdent in his own power, but just now, he had actually been knocked backwards by the collision force.

“Mr. Leylin!” Linley couldn’t help but call out in delight.

“Blueﬁre?!” Bebe stared in disbelief, his eyebrows jumping upwards.

This person was indeed, Leylin ‘Blueﬁre’.

Chapter 39, Blueﬁre

“Mr. Leylin?” Although surprised and delighted, Linley was puzzled as well. Although in the past, Blueﬁre had given him some guidance, and he had viewed Blueﬁre as being very powerful, that was because when Linley was young, he had been too weak. “I’m above average even amongst commanders now! Ordinary commanders aren’t able to do anything to me. But that attack from Mr. Leylin just now…? What level of power has he reached, exactly?”

Linley didn’t know if that attack was a casual attack, or a full- power attack from Blueﬁre!

“Linley. Bebe. Long time no see.” Blueﬁre smiled as he strolled over.

“Haha.” The nearby Hemmers suddenly let out a loud, carefree laugh. His laughter echoed like thunder, and he stared at Blueﬁre with those golden eyes and a scorching gaze. Two rays of golden light that could be seen by the naked eye shot out from Hemmers’ gaze. “What an expert! Here in the Planar Battleﬁeld, when everyone sees me, Hemmers, they all slink away and hide in the distance. It is so rare for me to meet an expert like you. Fighting with this Azure Dragon clan kid is no fun; I feel like my arms and legs are tied. It’s not pleasurable! Your power seems to be decent. Come, let’s have a contest!”

Linley and Bebe were both stunned.

“Is Hemmers crazy?” Linley blinked twice.

What he didn’t know was that Hemmers was the sort of person with a straightforward disposition who loved battle.

As soon as Hemmers ﬁnished speaking, he made his move! His steel-hard leg, ﬂashing with golden light, slammed hard against the ground. “BANG!” The ground instantly split apart, with hundreds of cracks appearing. Hemmers transformed into a golden ﬂash of lightning, charging straight towards Blueﬁre!

“What a boorish man.” Blueﬁre raised a crimson eyebrow, saying with a soft laugh. His robes were as white as snow. Blueﬁre just stood there, not dodging at all.

“BANG!” Hemmers’ right leg, ﬂashing with golden light, struck out towards Blueﬁre like a meteor. This kick caused the world to tremble, space to distort, and dozens of twisted spatial cracks to appear.

“What a terrifying kick.” Linley’s face changed.

“Boss ,just now, when he fought you, he wasn’t this powerful.” Bebe said.

Linley knew this all too well. He had relied on his gravitational compression to make it so that Hemmers was unable to bring his full force to bear. Otherwise, given how monstrous Hemmers’ innate strength was, how could Linley have exchanged so many blows? “Bebe, carefully watch and see how Mr. Leylin receives the attack.” Linley stared at the battle, not daring to be distracted at all.

Bebe stared as well.

“Not bad.” Blueﬁre just stood there, but very strangely, that golden leg-blur actually moved through Blueﬁre’s body.

Blueﬁre’s body vanished, reappearing three meters away.

“Teleportation?” Linley’s face changed. “No…speed! Astonishing speed, speed comparable to Bayer’s! For him to dare to dodge only at the last moment against Hemmers’ kick, his speed is absolutely…” This was the second time Linley had seen such terrifying speed.

Hemmers had missed with his kick, but he let out an explosive shout. “Good!” At the same time, Hemmers suddenly twisted his thick torso!

He spun about like a tornado, and his golden leg instantly began to spin about as well. With almost no pause, he continuously kicked out towards Blueﬁre, who still had that calm smile on his face with not a hint of fear or concern. “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

In Linley, Bebe, and Hemmers’ eyes, Blueﬁre’s body seemed to teleport about, consecutively creating multiple after-images, then appearing a hundred meters away, standing there calmly.

“Boss, this Blueﬁre…what sort of speed is this? What profound mysteries is he using?” Bebe didn’t understand.

Linley trained in the Elemental Laws of Fire, so he had some ideas. “Fire is different from wind. Bayer’s body became agile and illusory; although his speed was very fast, he was also as formless and invisible as the wind. Mr. Leylin is different though; watch, he’s just like the ﬁre. Flames erupt violently and with energy! There’s nothing illusory about Mr. Blueﬁre’s speed; he explodes with it! His speed instantly explodes forth to a limit, making it so that even you and I feel as though he is teleporting.”

Linley couldn’t stop sighing in amazement. For a person to reach such a level in speed…this alone would make Blueﬁre a high class commander.

“What’s going on with you?” Hemmers bellowed angrily. “You keep dodging! This is no fun at all. I, Hemmers, had a favorable impression of you, which is why I wanted to ﬁght you. If you have any ability, ﬁght against me, Hemmers, head on!” Hemmers howled unhappily to one side, clearly knowing that his speed was far inferior to this person.

Actually, Hemmers was very angry. His attacks were very powerful, and his defenses were also very powerful. Unfortunately, he was too slow and he wasn’t skilled in distance attacks.

Thus, when many experts encountered Hemmers, they would immediately ﬂee. This was same for the ﬁrst two people he had encountered; it was also the same for the next few hundred he had encountered. This, Hemmers absolutely detested people who relied on speed to dodge.”

“You are an amusing fellow.” Blueﬁre still had a smile on his face.

“Amusing my ass!” Hemmers raised his head and shouted. “Shorty, if you have any skill, come ﬁght me, Hemmers, head on!” As he spoke, Hemmers viciously smashed his two sandbag-sized ﬁsts against each other. With a ‘BANG’ sound, it was as though a mountain had just collapsed. The terrifying collision caused spatial cracks to appear even between his ﬁsts.

“Shorty, do you dare?” Hemmers raised his head proudly.

Blueﬁre’s height was quite normal, but given that Hemmers was three meters tall, it wasn’t unfair for him to describe Blueﬁre as being ‘short’.

“Haha…”

Blueﬁre couldn’t help but start to laugh. “I’ve been in the Planar Battleﬁeld for so long, but I haven’t actually fought a single time. Fine, then. Today, I’ll exercise a bit…come!” After Blueﬁre ﬁnished speaking, with a ‘bang!’ sound, Blueﬁre’s entire body began to swirl with ﬂame. Those eyes beneath his crimson eyebrows began to burst forth with ﬁery light.

He was like a ﬁery divinity of war!

“Good!” Hemmers laughed loudly, and after speaking, he charged towards Blueﬁre, the earth trembling with each step he took.

Linley and Bebe continued to watch, focusing their attention on this scene. “Boss, who will win? I mean, if they ﬁght head on, who will win?” Bebe asked mentally, while Linley shook his head. “I’m not too sure. According to your grandfather’s intelligence reports, Hemmers has an innate, massive strength, and his attack power is comparable to that of Highgod Paragons! If Mr. Leylin chooses to ﬁght with him head on… hard to say.”

Blueﬁre, his entire body swathed in ﬂames, watched calmly as Hemmers charged over.

“HAAARGH!” His face savage, Hemmers gave a low growl, and his right ﬁst, carrying an inexhaustible, massive force and ﬂowing with the profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, smashed directly towards Blueﬁre. With a ‘rumble’ sound, spatial began to tremble everywhere the ﬁst went past.

In an instant, the ﬁst arrived before Blueﬁre.

“Good!” An explosive shout.

Blueﬁre, who had been calm this entire time, lifted his eyebrows. His right hand, formerly hanging down by his side, suddenly shot out lightning-fast. Linley and Bebe only sensed an eye-piercingly brilliant, ﬁery red light shoot out. This ray of ﬁery light slammed directly against Hemmers’ ﬁst, a head on collision…ﬁst against ﬁst!

There was no trick to it at all; it was a complete, head-on collision!

“CRACK!” When their ﬁsts intersected, space shattered apart like glass, as dozens of spatial rips appeared!

Hemmers and Blueﬁre both trembled slightly. Hemmers took three steps back, while Blueﬁre took one step back as well.

“Uh?” Linley and Bebe, stunned, stared with completely round eyes.

“How terrifying. Blueﬁre didn’t use a Sovereign artifact or Deity artifact at all.” Linley had been focused on Blueﬁre’s ﬁst; that was a ﬁst that was as white and pristine as white jade. “Hemmers was birthed from the Divine Earth Plane itself; he was a golden mountain who, after countless years of being nurtured by the plane, gained sentience, which is why his body has such incredible strength. But Blueﬁre…”

Linley was stunned.

“Superb! Hemmers, you really live up to your reputation!” Blueﬁre laughed calmly, letting out a praising sigh. Hemmers stared at Blueﬁre, stunned, then at his own ﬁst. He didn’t dare believe it. “How is that possible? How is that possible? He fought with me head on, but he actually had a slight advantage?” Hemmers knew very well that just now, in that instant when his ﬁst collided with the ﬁst of the man before him, a sharp, boring force had surged towards him.

That sharp, boring force was like the explosion of a volcano; it had charged forward ﬁercely!

In the face of that explosive power, Hemmers felt his undefeatable ﬁst…tremble.

“Who are you?” Hemmers said in a low voice.

“Me? You can address me as…Blueﬁre!” Blueﬁre said with a calm laugh.

Hemmers narrowed his ox-like eyes, then nodded slightly and said in sonorously, “Fine, Blueﬁre. I’ll remember you! Even in the past, when I encountered that Highgod Paragon of water, Borhaus [Bo’er’hao’si], when we exchanged punches against each other, I still wasn’t at a disadvantage. You…are very powerful!” After speaking, Hemmers turned and immediately walked away.

Blueﬁre laughed softly as he watched Hemmers leave. He couldn’t help but let out a sigh of praise. “He really lives up to the reputation of being an expert who was chosen to be a Sovereign’s Emissary, even as a Demigod.”

“Mr. Leylin.” Only now did Linley walk over.

“Leylin, you are so powerful!” Bebe’s eyes were shining, and he hurriedly ran over. “How did you become so powerful? How is it that Odin, one of the other ﬁve Kings of the Gebados Planar Prison, was so much weaker than you? Right…is your increase in strength related to your entry into the Necropolis of the Gods?”

Blueﬁre’s true name, after all, was ‘Zacharias Leylin.’ Blueﬁre was just a moniker. It was enough for outsiders to know his nickname, but of course people he knew would address him by his name.

“Necropolis of the Gods?” Blueﬁre let out a chuckle. “It had a bit to do with it, but it wasn’t all because of that place.”

And then, Blueﬁre turned to look towards Linley, laughing. “Linley, long time no see. I didn’t imagine that you would have already fused four profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. When I ﬁrst met you, I had the impression that your comprehension ability was excellent…but I didn’t expect that in just two thousand years, you would have reached such a level, and be standing at the peak amongst Highgods.”

Of course commanders would all be considered as being peak Highgods.

But of course, only ﬁgures at the level of Highgod Paragons could truly be considered the ‘peak’.

“If it hadn’t been for your guidance in the past, Mr. Leylin, I probably wouldn’t have been so fast in my training.” Linley said modestly. “Alright, it’s been so long since we’ve met. Let’s sit down and drink some wine and have a good chat.” Leylin said with a soft laugh.

Of course Linley wouldn’t refuse. It would be another three centuries before this Planar War would conclude. He had more than enough time, and he was happy to accompany Blueﬁre. At the same time, Linley was rather stunned by Blueﬁre’s power, as well as puzzled. “He was able to ﬁght Hemmers head on with his bare hands, and have a slight advantage? Can it be…that Blueﬁre has become a Paragon?”

Linley knew exactly how rare Paragons were!

There were many material planes, but over the course of countless years, the number of Highgod Paragons, or to be precise, the number of people suspected of being Highgod Paragons, was less than thirty. “Can it be that my Yulan Plane has produced one as well?” Linley felt quite eager.

Blueﬁre used a punch to create a cave, and then withdrew from his interspatial ring a table, wine, and food. The wine and food had all been kept chilled, but of course, Blueﬁre quickly defrosted them. Linley, Bebe, and Blueﬁre all sat down, eating and drinking and chatting casually.

“I didn’t expect you to come as well, Mr. Leylin.” Bebe grabbed a haunch of Demon Dragon meat and began to chew on it. “I imagine you must have killed quite a few commanders over the past few years in the Planar Battleﬁeld, Mr. Leylin. How many?”

Blueﬁre held a cup of wine. He took a sip, then laughed and shook his head. “Not a single one.”

“What? Not even one?” Bebe stared. “Mr. Leylin, everything else aside, the speed you showed off as well as that terrifying attack strength of yours, comparable to Hemmers…these two things alone make it so that you can kill many commanders! When those commanders encounter you, they won’t even be able to run!”

Given how fast Blueﬁre was, how would anyone be able to escape him? “Do I have to kill people just because I came to the Planar Battleﬁeld?” Blueﬁre shook his head and laughed. “I came here for two reasons. First, I’ve never taken part in a Planar War, and wanted to come in for a look. As for the second…you don’t need to ask.”

Bebe, knowing that Blueﬁre didn’t wish to discuss it, asked no more.

Linley, unable to repress his curiosity, asked, “Mr. Blueﬁre, just now, that speed of yours…as far as I can tell, only that Highgod Paragon, ‘Bayer’, is comparable to you. And your attack power is comparable to Hemmers’. I want to ask you, Mr. Leylin…have you reached the Paragon level in fusing the profound mysteries?”

Blueﬁre was startled.

“If you can’t tell me, then don’t.” Linley said hurriedly. Linley, too, knew that many Highgod Paragons hid their power and didn’t publicize it. This was why many people were only ‘suspected of being Highgod Paragons’.

“There’s no need for me to keep any secrets from you.” Blueﬁre nodded slightly. “Indeed. A thousand years ago, I reached the level of Paragon.”

Chapter 40, Will

“You really are a Paragon!” Linley, despite being mentally prepared, couldn’t help but suck in a breath.

What did it mean for someone to be a Paragon? It meant that one had completely, thoroughly mastered one of the Laws. The number of people who were able to become Paragons was even fewer than the number who were able to become Sovereigns. From this, one could tell that without exception, every single person who reached this level was a glorious ﬁgure who possessed astonishing innate abilities, comprehension, luck, and who was hard-working!

One couldn’t be lacking in any of these aspects. Only in perfect could a Paragon be born.

Bebe’s eyes turned round. He stared at Blueﬁre for a long time, unable to say anything.

“What’s with those looks on your faces? There’s no need to be like this.” Blueﬁre said with a laugh.

“What do you mean, no need to be like this? Paragon!!!” Bebe called out in shock. “Mr. Leylin, including you, the planes of the universe only have, all combined, less than thirty Paragons! The material planes are numerous beyond count, but in the course of countless years, how many Paragons have been birthed from them? Most likely, our Yulan Plane only has you!”

Blueﬁre began to laugh. Although his heart was as calm as water, when he thought of these things, he couldn’t help but feel slightly proud as well.

Upon reaching the level of Paragon, it was true that a person could be proud for the rest of his life.

“Mr. Leylin, admirable, truly, admirable.” Linley felt a surge of heat in his heart as well. How long would it be before he would reach the same level?

Blueﬁre couldn’t help but laugh, while Bebe suddenly said, “Boss, didn’t Grandpa say that once you reach Mr. Leylin’s level, you can go to the Necropolis of the Gods? Uh…he’s a Paragon, Boss. When will you become a Paragon? Doesn’t that mean that entering the Necropolis of the Gods is something for the distant future?”

“That’s what Beirut said?” Blueﬁre was startled.

“Right. He did say that.” Linley said, resigned.

Previously, Linley still had some hope, but now that he knew Blueﬁre was a Paragon…“Can it be that I am going to have to reach the Paragon level before entering the Necropolis of the Gods? How long will that take?” Linley knew his own limits. The further along one went in fusion, the more time it took. Linley even suspected that even if he spent countless years, he still might not be able to become a Paragon.

After all, there were many people who initially trained very quickly, but upon reaching a certain level, could no longer rise. They had reached their limit.

“Haha…” Blueﬁre shook his head and laughed. “When I entered the Necropolis of the Gods, I had only fused ﬁve profound mysteries. I imagine what Beirut meant was that when you, Linley, are at the level I was back then, with ﬁve mysteries fused, you’ll be allowed to enter! There’s no way he is requiring that you be a Paragon. That’s too stringent.”

Linley, hearing this, couldn’t help but nod. Right. When Blueﬁre had entered, he hadn’t become a Paragon yet.

Bebe mumbled, “Even fusing ﬁve profound mysteries will take very, very long. The farther along one goes, the harder it is.”

“What’s the rush?” Linley said with a calm laugh. “Bebe, given my current power, I already am able to stay alive against other commanders. Once this Planar War concludes, we will return to the Infernal Realm! When we no longer have any important business to attend to, we can slowly spend a few billion years in training.”

Blueﬁre smiled and said approvingly, “Not bad. You aren’t arrogant and you aren’t impetuous. Only then can you allow things to reach their natural conclusion. The more impatient you are, the harder success will be.” “There’s no need to over-think matters regarding the Necropolis of the Gods.” Linley said with a laugh.

Right now, Linley didn’t really have any burdens; after having spent all these years in the Planar Battleﬁeld, he had acquired three badges, and lacked only one more. Given that his power had increased greatly, Linley was conﬁdent that if he and Bebe joined forces, it wouldn’t be hard for them to acquire one more. After accomplishing this matter, he would truly be relieved, and would be able to calmly continue his pursuit of perfection.

“Mr. Leylin.” Linley looked at Blueﬁre and said solemnly, “I have a question in my heart.”

“Speak.” Blueﬁre sipped some wine and said with a calm laugh.

“I am very confused regarding Highgod Paragons.” Linley said with a frown. “There are quite a few commanders who are exceptionally, innately talented, such as Reisgem or Reihom. They were born with tremendous power. In addition, they have fused ﬁve of the profound mysteries of their Laws! Logically speaking, given how powerful their bodies are and the fact that they have fused ﬁve profound mysteries, I feel that they should be on par with Highgod Paragons. But previously, when they fought Bayer, I discovered…the difference was tremendous. They were toyed with.”

“Right. That Bayer was too powerful. He was easily able to compress space. That restrictive power was too terrifying.” Bebe said hurriedly.

“In addition, soul attacks. Wind is suited for material attacks, and not for soul attacks. Although it has ‘Music’ and ‘Sound Waves’, the power isn’t extraordinary. But why is it that when Bayer executed a soul attack, I fell into a dazed state without being able to resist at all?” Linley didn’t understand at all.

Even Paragons had differences amongst themselves.

Wind-element Paragons were extremely strong in material attacks. Water-element Paragons had exceptional material defenses. Previously, Hemmers said that a water-element Highgod Paragon was slightly weaker than him in a frontal clash.

But Bayer was a Highgod Paragon of wind. Why was it that his soul attack was so terrifying?

Linley truly didn’t understand!

“Haha…” Blueﬁre began to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Bebe muttered. “Paragons truly are monstrously powerful. It seems as though they are mighty in every aspect.” Different Highgod Paragons of different elements would have different specialties, but although they might be weaker in one aspect, they still far surpassed commanders in might.

For example, although that Highgod Paragon of water was weaker in material attacks, he was still close to being on par with Hemmers.

“Highgod Paragons have no weaknesses.” Blueﬁre said with a calm laugh.

Linley and Bebe immediately perked up and began to listen carefully. Naturally, when a Highgod Paragon spoke on this subject, they spoke with authority.

“Highgod Paragons are extremely powerful in every aspect! Different Laws and Edicts only result in Paragons being stronger in certain aspects; for example, I am strongest in soul attacks! Actually, Highgod Paragons are powerful in all aspects…because of a certain secret.” Blueﬁre said.

“Secret?” Linley and Bebe were stunned.

“Right.” Blueﬁre sighed in praise. “Linley, I can tell you two this, but…the secret about me being a Paragon, as well as this secret? You can’t tell anyone else.”

“Of course.” Linley and Bebe both nodded.

Blueﬁre nodded slightly, then said, “That year, when I was fusing the six profound mysteries of the Laws of Fire, I reached a bottleneck! I was only one step away from becoming a Paragon. I was already extremely powerful by that point in time. However, once I took that ﬁnal step and became a Paragon, do you know…how great the difference in power was?”

Linley shook his head. “I’m not sure. However, breaking through bottlenecks, generally speaking, wouldn’t result in too ridiculous an increase in power.”

“When I took that ﬁnal step, I felt myself transformed!” Blueﬁre sighed. “A qualitative transformation. The difference between heaven and earth!”

“Heaven and earth?” Linley and Bebe were startled.

“I trust you know that generally speaking, any Highgod, even a very powerful one, who hasn’t reach the Paragon level, upon annoying a Sovereign, can be destroyed by the Sovereign with a thought. There is one type of Highgod which is an exception; Paragons! A Sovereign’s Will cannot kill a Highgod Paragon!” Blueﬁre laughed.

Linley nodded slightly. He knew this.

“Why?” Blueﬁre said with a laugh. “This has to do with the secret of Paragons! Upon becoming a Paragon, in an instant, one is transformed.”

Linley and Bebe listened carefully.

“In that instant of transformation upon becoming a Paragon!” Blueﬁre seemed to be reminiscing about that feeling he had. “A very unique sort of natural Law surrounded my soul! My soul underwent a sort of qualitative transformation. After the transformation completed, I understood how powerful Paragons were.” Blueﬁre began to laugh.

A qualitative transformation of the soul? Linley was stunned. From Demigod to God to Highgod, the soul rose in power each time. But he hadn’t imagined that upon reaching the Paragon level, the soul would rise again.

“This sort of soul transformation caused the natural Laws to bestow upon me a sort of authority which Paragons have!” Blueﬁre smiled. “An authority which included the Will of the natural Laws of the world! A Paragon’s Will!”

Linley was stunned.

Everyone had a will, but the will of ordinary Highgods was an insubstantial thing, containing no attack power. “The Will of a Paragon…contains the Laws of the world?” Linley couldn’t refrain from asking.

“Right!” Blueﬁre laughed. “Actually, the increase in power from fusing the profound mysteries, in and of itself, is limited. But even an ordinary attack from us, upon being infused with our Will, will cause the power to rise to a terrifying level! This is a sort of authority! An authority bestowed by the universe itself! And this is what we rely upon to resist the Will of a Sovereign!” Linley and Bebe began to understand.

They, too, had heard that a Sovereign’s Will was inviolable. Sovereign power wasn’t that special; however, Sovereign power infused with a Sovereign’s Will was terrifyingly, ridiculously powerful. The most terrifying thing about a Sovereign was their Will.

“It is like an Emperor! He doesn’t have to act himself; an order from him can cause countless people to lose their heads. To an ordinary person, an Emperor’s will is inviolable!” Blueﬁre laughed calmly. “This is a sort of power. The force of his will! The will of ordinary Highgods cannot be used to attack, but for Highgod Paragons, they have this sort of authority, bestowed upon them by the universe itself!”

Linley and Bebe now understood.

Good heavens! So this was the situation. Will? Amongst the countless Highgods, Highgod Paragons were like ‘Emperors’ who were far above the others. The Will of Highgod Paragons contained the natural Laws, and so even an ordinary attack by a Highgod Paragon contained terrifyingly powerful force!

“No wonder! A casual movement by Bayer caused the four of us to feel such tremendous restrictions.” Bebe sighed in praise. “An empty-handed attack was comparable to a Sovereign weapon attack.”

“What about the Will of a Sovereign?” Bebe said hurriedly. “How much stronger is it than a Paragon’s Will?”

“Much stronger!” Blueﬁre laughed. “It is the same principle! Sovereigns have a Sovereign spark, and they too have been bestowed by the natural laws of the universe with tremendous authority! This causes their Will to possess even greater power. Sovereigns, from trillions of kilometers away, can use their Will alone to control their Sovereign power to attack us. We Highgod Paragons can just barely hold them off and preserve our lives. However, if a Sovereign was to come in person to attack us, there’s no way we would be able to resist.” Linley and Bebe now completely understood.

The Will of a Sovereign was bestowed by the natural Laws of the universe with far more authority than the Will of Highgod Paragons.

If they were trillions of kilometers away, a Sovereign wouldn’t be able to kill a Paragon. But if they were close by, the Paragon would still die. But of course…amongst Highgods, Paragons were already invincible ﬁgures.

“A Will which possesses tangible power and might.” Linley sighed.

Blueﬁre stayed with Linley and Bebe for three days. During these three days, the three of them chatted and drank. Linley told him some of the stories about the attacks they had suffered here on the Planar Battleﬁeld, and Blueﬁre had sighed when listening. Still, after three days, Blueﬁre still parted from Linley. After all, Blueﬁre had come to the Planar Battleﬁeld for a purpose that was different from Linley’s; Blueﬁre disdained from killing people.

Currently, they were outside the cave. Standing on the desolate earth, Blueﬁre was bidding Linley and Bebe farewell.

“Haha, Linley, let me wish you luck in acquiring your fourth commander badge, then.” Blueﬁre said with a calm laugh. “Right. Tell me. Before this, you stayed with Reisgem for a time. Half a month before I met you, I discovered Reisgem and that Reihom you described in a cave.

“Oh?” Linley and Bebe were instantly overjoyed.

“Where are they?” Linley immediately asked. Linley still felt very grateful towards Reisgem.

Blueﬁre looked around, then pointed towards a direction. “Go straight in that direction. Roughly a hundred and ten thousand kilometers away, you’ll discover a mountain with two peaks, like a ram’s horn. The two of them are staying there at the base of the mountain, in a cave. But of course…I can’t be sure if they are still there.”

“Thank you, Mr. Leylin.” Linley was overjoyed.

Generally speaking, they would stay in one place for many years. As Blueﬁre had seen them there recently, Reisgem should still be there.

“It seems as though you want to reunite with them as well.

Then we’ll each part ways now.” Blueﬁre laughed.

Linley and Bebe immediately bade Blueﬁre farewell, then, without returning to their cave, ﬂew towards the direction Blueﬁre had pointed towards at high speed. Actually, upon hearing the description of a ram’s horn shaped mountain, Linley already had an idea. He had a map of the Planar Battleﬁeld. Naturally he knew where the mountain was located.

Blueﬁre watched as the two disappeared into the desolate wilderness, then couldn’t help but laugh. He then sighed, “Beirut really spared no expense and no effort! However, now that Linley has fused four profound mysteries, it can be said that Beirut has accomplished his goal. As for the fusion of the ﬁfth profound mystery, that’s quite far off. It seems, for now, there’s nothing more for me to do here! Mm, I’ve never seen a Planar War. I can’t miss the ﬁnal battle that will happen in three hundred years.” Blueﬁre gracefully departed.

Chapter 41, High Spirits

The cold wind howled, stabbing like knives as it swept across the vast, desolate earth. Sand and pebbles ﬂew about wildly, and two blurry forms continued to advance.

Not too far away from them, up ahead, there was a large, twin-peaked mountain. The mountain was thousands of meters high, and the peak of the mountain was split, all the way from the top to the halfway point. From a distance, it looked just like the horns of a ram. In the maps of the Planar Battleﬁeld, this mountain, the ‘Ramhorn Mountain’, was something of a landmark.

“Here we are!” Linley, dressed in a deep green robe, glanced about, his eyes ﬂashing like lightning as he stared at every ‘suspicious’ looking part of Ramhorn Mountain.

“It seems there’s no cave here.” Bebe mumbled.

“Even if Reisgem is here, how could he allow others to tell just by looking? Let’s do a good investigation of the entire Ramhorn Mountain.” After speaking, Linley and Bebe transformed into two blurs, ﬂying at high speed towards Ramhorn Mountain.

With Reihom present, even the most desolate of mountains could be transformed into a luxurious cave estate.

Within that estate inside Ramhorn Mountain, there was a large estate hall that seemed to have been formed by nature. Reihom, that big fellow, was currently seated in the meditative position in the corner of the hall, quietly training. The slow passage of time, to these supreme experts, was generally spent in training. As for Reisgem, he was seated on a chair, his legs resting atop a table which was covered with all sorts of fruits and foods.

“Montelo, that bastard.” Reisgem grabbed a haunch of leg meat from an unknown beast, giving it a savage bite. “He’s so cocky. All he has is strength in numbers.”

Reisgem, when thinking back to what happened three years ago, still was quite angry and discontent. Reisgem turned to look at the meditating Reihom. He couldn’t help but call out, “Hey, Reihom, stop training like an idiot. There’s no need to train so frantically. It’s not so easy to reach the level of Paragon. Come over here and drink and chat with me.”

The towering, wargod-like Reihom opened his eyes, and it was as though corporeal light emanated forth.

“Yes.” Reihom rose to his feet, then moved to sit down across from Reisgem.

“I asked you to chat with me, so why aren’t you saying anything?” Reisgem couldn’t help but feel resigned. Seeing how Reihom was acting, though, all he could say was, “Alright. Ugh. If I’d known it’d be like this, I would’ve brought a few more people as well. Even if they aren’t able to help out in a ﬁght, they’d help me relieve my boredom. Speaking of ﬁghting…if I become a Paragon, I will deﬁnitely make it so that that Montelo would suffer so much that he would beg for dear.”

“He…needs killing.” Reihom growled as well.

Reisgem immediately laughed. “Right. Needs killing!”

“Reisgem!” A clear voice rang out from the corridor up ahead. “Hey, Reisgem, we’re here!” A joyful sound echoed forth from the cave tunnel-corridor. And then, with a ‘bang’ sound, clearly the mountainous slab of rock that covered the tunnel was broken through.

Reisgem and Reihom reacted by instinct. “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” They hurriedly rose to their feet and glanced at each other, their eyes ﬁlled with surprise, delight, and laughter.

“Linley and Bebe came.” Reihom said.

“Haha…let’s go welcome them, quick.” Reisgem was the ﬁrst to ﬂy out, with Reihom close behind. Once the two arrived at their front courtyard, they saw that the gates to the courtyard had already been broken through. Linley, dressed in a deep green robe, and a black-robed Bebe were smiling, walking over shoulder-to-shoulder. “Reisgem.” Bebe called out jubilantly.

“Ohoh, Bebe!” Reisgem excitedly charged over, grabbing Bebe into a bearhug. “We’re ﬁnally reunited again.”

“Linley.” Reihom revealed a hint of a smile towards Linley as well, and Linley laughed and nodded.

Reihom was currently transformed into a size of just two meters in height, comparable to Linley. As for Bebe and Reisgem, their heights were similar as well…the four members of this hunting squad, standing together, made for quite an interesting scene.

“His mommy!” Reisgem turned his head to look at Linley, then punched Linley on the chest and snorted, “Linley, kid, you worried me to death! When you were being attacked and chased by Oman, I wasn’t worried about Bebe; I was only worried about you! Oman wouldn’t be able to do anything to Bebe, but you were a different story. You are my one and only disciple, y’know? If you die, I’ll be very sad.” Linley let out an awkward laugh.

Disciple?

“Hey, Reisgem, we’re bros!” Bebe slapped his arm around Reisgem’s shoulders and cocked his head. “We’re on the same level, so how can you consider yourself my Boss’ ‘master’?”

“Uh…” Reisgem was startled.

“Fine then.” Reisgem gave Linley a sideways look. “It was you who comprehended the profound secrets of my Amethyst Space on your own, and it was my mother who asked me to do what I did! You can be considered my mother’s disciple, then, which means you and I are on the same level as well.” As Reisgem spoke, he began to snicker. Hearing this, Linley couldn’t help but have a thought. “Hm? So Reisgem did what he did, teaching me while claiming to ‘punish’ me, was at the behest of the Sovereign. But why did the Sovereign make that decision? I’ve never before met the Redbud Sovereign.” Bebe said, puzzled, “Hey, Reisgem, that was all arranged by your mother, the Sovereign?”

“Right. My mother even gave an important Soulstone to Linley.” Reisgem mumbled. “I really didn’t want to part with it.”

“Soulstone? You mean the black stone?” Linley hurriedly asked.

“Right.” Reisgem nodded very conﬁdently. “I feel sick at heart just talking about it. That Soulstone…my mother has never given it to any outsider before. You were the ﬁrst! Do you know? Even Sovereigns have asked for a Soulstone from my mother, but my mother wasn’t willing to give it to them.”

“Sovereigns wanted it?” Linley said, puzzled. “This is useful for Sovereigns?”

“It isn’t very useful for a Sovereign.” Reisgem shook his head. “But if it was given to a Highgod, it would be very useful!” Bebe said in surprise, “Reisgem, if we compare this ‘Soulstone’ to the ‘Abyssal Fruit’ of the Netherworld, which one is better?”

“Abyssal Fruit?” Reisgem chortled. “The Abyssal Fruit truly is a treasure as well, but even ten Abyssal Fruits aren’t as valuable as a single Soulstone. Perhaps it has limited impact on Sovereigns, but…for Highgods, a Soulstone is a true treasure. Linley, don’t look at me that way. In the future, you’ll know how valuable that Soulstone is! Although in the countless planes of the universe, there are only two Amethyst Godbeasts, myself and my mother, my mother is the only person capable of giving someone a Soulstone.”

Linley and Bebe looked at each other.

From the sounds of it, this ‘Soulstone’ really was quite remarkable. Indeed, in battle, it was remarkably useful, but Linley didn’t yet see how it could be as amazing as Reisgem was claiming it to be. “My mother probably gave one to you out of guilt. Otherwise, how could she possibly give it to you?” Reisgem said with a sigh.

“Guilt?” Linley asked hurriedly.

“Uh…” Reisgem covered his mouth, looked around, then hurriedly shook his head and said, “Don’t ask, just pretend I didn’t say anything. Don’t ask!”

Linley and Bebe were both rather astonished, but then Reisgem hurriedly changed the topic. He started to laugh. “Haha, Linley, Bebe, now that you are back, our chance for revenge has come! In the past three years, I’ve always wanted to ﬁnd Montelo and gain revenge, but myself and Reihom, without anyone else, are far from being enough. If we went, we’d just be taken advantage of by them. But now that you are here, things are different.”

“What do you mean?” Bebe raised an eyebrow. “We’re going to ﬁnd Montelo and get revenge?” “Of course!” Reisgem said, rather angrily. “I’ve been thinking about revenge every moment of the past three years. Now that my chance has come, how can we not go?”

“Right. Let’s go kill Montelo and the others.” Reihom’s gaze was cold, containing powerful hatred.

Linley frowned, worried about one thing. “Reisgem, last time, we exchanged blows with them. There were eight of them and only four of us. In addition, that Oman who fought with me was particularly strong. Even Bebe, using his innate divine ability, wasn’t able to do anything to him. We’re going to get revenge?”

“Right. Oman is really hard to deal with.” Bebe said.

“Haha…” Reisgem began to laugh smugly. “If there are eight, there are eight. What’s to fear? Only two of the eight have soul- protecting Sovereign artifacts. One is Oman, while the other is Chauswey [Xia’si’wei]. Although ﬁve of the other six have Sovereign artifacts, they don’t have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts! Last time, we were attacked and caught off guard. This time, as long as we prepare, Bebe, you use your innate divine ability and deal with two of them from the start! Once your innate divine ability recovers, we’ll continue to exterminate them…hmph, it won’t be hard for us to deal with eight of them!”

“It’s a bit tough to deal with eight people.” Linley said with a frown.

“Unfortunately, I can’t use my innate divine ability nonstop.” Bebe said resignedly.

Linley nodded slightly. The same was true for him. Using an innate divine ability and a soul attack were different concepts!

Soul attacks only took up spiritual energy; even if you used it all up, you could use Golden Soul-Pearls to quickly replenish it. Or, by relying on Sovereign power, one could use the attack repeatedly without worrying that one’s own spiritual energy would be used up.

But innate divine abilities, aside from using up spiritual energy, also used up their innate energy.

For example, Linley’s usage of ‘Dragon Roar’ used up that ‘azure light’ which was his innate energy. Although the innate azure light replenished very quickly, it still needed time! Bebe was able to execute two ‘Godeater’ innate divine ability attacks in succession, but for the third time, he had to wait for a while. Only after his innate energy replenished to a certain degree was he able to use it again.

“Eight people. We have two dispose of two of them at the very start.” Reisgem immediately began to plan it out. “Bebe, once we encounter them, ﬁrst deal with that silver-robed woman, Ranessa! Afterwards, then deal with Montelo! Once we deal with those two supreme experts, there are only two people capable of threatening us.”

Although the enemy side had eight experts, they only had four truly supreme experts, with the other four being slightly weaker, below-average commanders.

“Linley, Bebe, are the two of you tired? Should we rest for a bit, or head out right away?” Resigem asked. “Let’s head out now.” Linley said with a laugh. He and Bebe had parted from Blueﬁre not too long ago, and they had been resting previously as well. They weren’t the slightest bit tired; on the contrary, they looked forward to this battle. “If this battle goes as smoothly as predicted, I’ll have enough commander badges by the end.”

According to Linley’s calculations, only one was needed.

“Fine, then. Let’s head out.” Reisgem’s eyes were shining, and he snorted. “That Montelo. I’ll teach him to be so smug. And so cocky! Hmph, he has no idea that we have a trump card like Bebe.”

Montelo, as far as the soul went, was on the same level as Reisgem. Even Highgod Paragons would have to work hard to kill them through the soul. But…upon encountering Bebe’s innate divine ability, he would deﬁnitely die.

“Let’s go.” Reihom, who whole-heartedly wanted to avenge his brother, and Linley, who wanted to acquire enough commander badges, as well as Bebe and Reisgem directly left the cave.

Upon leaving the cave, they were in extraordinarily high spirits. But three days later, Reisgem became rather depressed and resigned.

The desolate wilderness. A wild wind howled drearily.

Four ﬁgures were striding side by side. Reisgem said helplessly, “I thought that the Planar Battleﬁeld wasn’t that large, but now, it seems, it’s huge. Finding Montelo within it is too hard.” The Planar Battleﬁeld had a circumference of a million kilometers, and the restrictive power of it was a level higher than the Infernal Realm and Netherworld’s.

Even for Linley, to travel a million kilometers would take a day or two, and that was if they were walking in a straight line. They weren’t doing that; they were searching one place after another for Montelo.

“Even if we used Sovereign’s Might to search, it would take a few dozen years or even upwards of a hundred years to ﬁnd Montelo.” Linley shook his head and sighed.

To ﬁnd someone in the Planar Battleﬁeld, one would have to rely on Sovereign’s Might and use it in the form of divine sense. By doing so, the range would be much greater.

“Right. There’s one other way.” Bebe mumbled.

“What way?” Reisgem said, startled. “What’s another way for us to ﬁnd Montelo?”

“Actually, we don’t have to ﬁnd them. They can ﬁnd us; that’s ﬁne as well.” Bebe said with a snicker. “We want to take revenge on Montelo, but he wants to make trouble for you as well. Reisgem, all you need to do is start a battle which causes a bit of a ruckus, and even use that innate divine ability of yours! Make it so that people ten thousand kilometers away will know that the person causing this ruckus was you, Reisgem! As long as Montelo isn’t too far away, he’ll soon hurry here to deal with you.

Reisgem’s eyes immediately lit up. “That’s so simple! Why didn’t I think of it?!” Reisgem immediately began to laugh. “This time, I’m going to make it so that Montelo throws himself into my net!

Chapter 42, A Nightmare Descends

“What we need to consider is where we should ﬁght, so as to draw them here.” Bebe said with a frown. “After all, the Planar Battleﬁeld is too large. Even on just this side of the Planar Battleﬁeld, the region has a circumference of a million kilometers. If we don’t pick the right place and are too far away from Montelo, wouldn’t that make it hard for them to ﬁnd us?”

Reisgem nodded slightly. “So where exactly is Montelo?”

If they knew the answer to that, there would be no need for all these complicated maneuvers.

“I think,” Linley said reﬂectively, “That after Montelo’s group of eight failed to kill us, they probably found a place to rest as well. And the place they chose to rest shouldn’t be too far away from the scene of the last battle.”

“I’ve already searched the area within a circumference of ten thousand kilometers around that place.” Reisgem shook his head.

Before this, they had spent three times and completely searched the area within ten thousand kilometers, and had even used Sovereign’s Might. One could imagine how hard it was to ﬁnd them.

“I expect that their resting place is within a hundred thousand kilometers of the previous battle.” Linley guessed. “How about this. Let’s make this place right here the scene of the battle. It is within hundred thousand kilometers of the last battle scene. Let’s make some noise! If we use Sovereign’s Might, they might just ﬁnd us.”

Reisgem hesitated momentarily, then nodded slightly. “Fine. That’s what we’ll do, then! If we don’t succeed, we can try two or three more places that are a few tens of thousands of kilometers away.”

“Given Montelo’s temperament, once he discovers us, he’ll deﬁnitely come.” Reisgem revealed a smile on his face. “Reihom, you’ll put on the play with us.” Reisgem laughed while looking at Reihom.

Roughly twenty thousand kilometers away from this location, within the base of a squad mountain that was less than a thousand meters high, a cavern had been dug. Montelo’s group of ﬁve was there.

Within the cave.

The muscular golden-robed man, Oman, was seated silently in the meditative stance to one side of the cave, his eyes closed. That arrogant-looking middle-aged man was nearby quietly training as well. As for Montelo and the green-haired maiden, they were seated facing each other, chatting and laughing. “Young master, last time, we gained quite a bit. If we can be this lucky during the ﬁnal battle, young master, you might end up having enough military merits.”

Montelo laughed softly. “How about….Lowe [Lu’yi], you give me your military merits. That way, I won’t have to worry about coming up with enough.” “How can we do that?” The green-haired maiden’s laughter was as clear as a bell. “Young master, if you give me some of your military merits, I might be able to come up with enough as well.”

“Jeeze.” Montelo shook his head and laughed.

Montelo knew very well that although everyone addressed him as ‘young master’, in reality, in this group of ﬁve, only the silver-haired elder who stood by his side was his old servant. This silver-haired elder was the weakest of the ﬁve, without any Sovereign artifacts. He came to attend to Montelo’s needs.

As for the other three, each of them, be it Oman, Chauswey, or Lowe, although they gave him face by addressing him as young master, the military merits they gained were divided in accordance with their earlier agreement.

“Rumble…” An extremely weak ripple of energy made it towards them. Montelo, Lowe, and the silver-haired Elderway immediately turned to look towards the tunnel. Even the meditating Oman and Chauswey opened their eyes to look outwards.

The Planar Battleﬁeld wasn’t that large to begin with. Given that battles were normally rare, the occasional major battle attracted quite a bit of attention.

“Energy ripples! It is Sovereign power.” Montelo was the ﬁrst to ﬂy out.

“Perhaps we’ll acquire some more commander badges.” The green-haired maiden laughed enchantingly as she ﬂew out as well, immediately followed by the silver-haired elder, the golden-robed ‘Oman’, and the arrogant middle-aged ‘Chauswey’. The three transformed into three blurs and ﬂew outwards.

Upon ﬂying out from the tunnel, Montelo and the other four immediately ﬂew at high speed towards the origin of the energy ripples. Because the Planar Battleﬁeld was ﬂat, as long as there were no mountains blocking one’s line of vision, commander-level experts would be able to see things from ten thousand kilometers away, despite the distance. But of course…the larger something was, the more clearly it would be visible.

“Whoooosh.” The wind howled drearily as the ﬁve of them ﬂew at high speed.

Moments later, Montelo’s group of ﬁve clearly saw a black, heaven-encompassing web-like rampart hanging high in the skies. The black rampart was hundreds of meters in size, and covered with a layer of ﬂowing violet light. A black rampart that was hundreds of meters in size…for commanders, it would be bizarre if they weren’t able to locate it.

The silver-haired elder said in surprise, “Amethyst Rampart?

Reisgem’s Amethyst Rampart?”

A look of surprise and delight appeared on Montelo’s face. He couldn’t help but begin to laugh loudly. “It really is Reisgem’s innate divine ability. Last time, he ﬂed. I didn’t expect that I’d encounter him yet again. Everyone, hurry up to the location of the ﬁght. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity.”

“The distance is too great!” Oman said, stone-faced. “Given the great distance, by the time we ﬂy over, the battle might have concluded and Reisgem might have left.”

Montelo understood this as well. A distance of twenty thousand kilometers…if they ﬂew over at maximum speed, it would still take some time.

“We can’t let this opportunity to go waste! Everyone, use your Sovereign’s Might!” Montelo immediately sent mentally. “A drop of Sovereign’s Might is enough for us to make it in time. In addition, if we are lucky, perhaps we’ll be able to kill Reisgem’s comrades. I wonder if Reisgem has one person with him or is in a group of three.”

Montelo turned to look at Oman. “Oman, last time, you didn’t kill those two. This time, don’t miss again.”

“Don’t worry.” Oman said conﬁdently.

“Let’s go!”

Montelo, with a ‘bang’, set his Sovereign’s Might ablaze. Immediately, the other four also set their own Sovereign’s Might ablaze. An ordinary commander might cherish their Sovereign’s Might more, but Montelo came from the ‘Augusta’ clan, and was one of the clan’s strongest experts. Although the amount of Sovereign’s Might he was allotted wasn’t as ridiculous as the amount Reisgem had access to, it was still quite a bit.

Montelo was still capable of wasting a few drops liberally as needed.

After having used their Sovereign’s Might, the ﬁve ﬁgures instantly rose in speed by an extravagant amount.

They were like ﬁve blurs, instantly piercing through the skies and moving towards the location of Reisgem’s battle. Reisgem and Reihom were currently battling nonstop. Thunderous booms could be heard unceasingly, and the earth had shattered. Wild bursts of Sovereign power constantly emanated forth.

“Five surges of Sovereign power are headed towards us at high speed.” Linley noticed.

“Light-type Sovereign power.” Bebe said.

Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face. “Not eight. Five. Still, for them to be coming so arrogantly and brazenly…it should be Montelo’s group.” Linley knew very well that ordinary commanders who were going to attack someone would never cause such a huge stir. Only Montelo, who knew exactly how strong Reisgem’s team was, would dare to hurry over in such a manner at high speed.

“I didn’t think that just after battling for a short while, they would arrive.” Reisgem and Reihom stopped ﬁghting. “They are probably afraid that you will stop ﬁghting and they won’t be able to make it.” Linley said with a laugh.

And just like that, Linley, Reihom, Bebe, and Reisgem just stood there, shoulder-to-shoulder, looking towards the direction of Montelo’s group of ﬁve, quietly awaiting their arrival.

“Rumble…” With Sovereign power blazing forth from them, their high speed movements did indeed cause quite a commotion.

With Montelo at the lead, the group of ﬁve, covered in foamy white light, appeared within the dark environment of the Planar Battleﬁeld like stars ﬂashing across the sky. The ﬁve quickly arrived at the scene of the earlier ‘battle’. The ﬁve of them looked forward, only to see the already-prepared Linley and his group.

“Montelo, it really is you.” Reisgem snickered. “There’s only ﬁve!” Linley felt relaxed as well. He had thought there would be eight of them, which would be rather pressuring, but now that there were only ﬁve, they were completely conﬁdent in their chances.”

“Heeeey.” Montelo, seeing the situation, felt puzzled. “The four of them aren’t ﬂeeing?”

Last time, during their ﬁght, Montelo came to believe that this four-person’s squad was only so-so. The ﬁve of them were completely capable of overcoming these four. However, Montelo didn’t know…that he had miscalculated Bebe’s strength. Bebe only had one powerful technique; his innate divine ability. Although Bebe’s technique couldn’t do anything to Oman, it could easily deal with the others.

However…

Montelo didn’t know. Oman didn’t know either! When Bebe had attacked him from behind, Oman, in possession of a soul- protecting Sovereign artifact, thought that it had only been an ordinary soul attack. “Oman, last time, you didn’t kill those two. This time, let’s see how you do.” Montelo said with a soft laugh.

“Don’t worry.” Oman swept Linley and Bebe with a cold gaze.

Linley looked straight at Oman as well. Suddenly, he began to laugh loudly. “Oman, last time, I didn’t enjoy the ﬁght. This time, let’s have a good tussle.”

Oman, to this, just responded with a snicker.

“You asked for this.” Montelo was absolutely delighted. Only by knowing one’s friends and enemies would one be guaranteed of victory. Montelo felt that he clearly knew what his enemies were like.

“Haha, let’s ﬁght!” Reisgem just laughed loudly.

“Attack.” Montelo barked as well. Montelo gave the order, and instantly, those ﬁve blurs shot forward, with the nimblest being the green-haired maiden with the Sovereign glove.

But when Reisgem gave the order, the four of them didn’t move. Suddenly, behind Bebe appeared the enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat. The black Godeater Rat hovered there in midair, and instantly, the ﬁve ﬁgures charging towards them were so terriﬁed that their faces changed.

“Beirut?” Oman said, shocked. “That’s not right!”

“Godeater Rat? Impossible!” Montelo, who had given the order, said, his face instantly turning ashen. Since he had given the order, he naturally was in the rear, and now he was the ﬁrst to ﬂee. “Everyone, ﬂee!” He hurriedly sent frantically.

If they didn’t ﬂee now, when?

Faced with the supreme technique of the Godeater Rat, anyone who wasn’t a Paragon or had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact would deﬁnitely die.

“Reisgem asked me to kill that woman, ‘Ranessa’, and Montelo. Montelo is a bit farther away though. I’ll kill this green-haired maiden, then.” Bebe, wanting to be certain of his kill, made his target the green-haired maiden. She had charged to the very front, and was at the rear of the pack while ﬂeeing.

“No…” The green-haired maiden’s eyes no longer held any luster or slyness, only terror.

However, it was too late!

The unique energy ripples of the innate divine ability instantly swept through her, locking onto the green-haired maiden’s soul and divine spark!

Innate divine ability – Godeater!

Immediately, a divine spark ﬂew out from within her body, and the eyes of the green-haired maiden instantly became lifeless. She collapsed from the skies, and her glove and a gold badge fell out onto the ground.

A commander-level expert had just died in an instant!

The supreme technique of Godeater Rats…the nightmare of many commanders!

“Flee, ﬂee!” Montelo was completely scared stupid by now. He only knew that he had to run. He knew very well that if today, he moved one step too slow, he would be ﬁnished! Although he was conﬁdent in his soul’s prowess, upon encountering the innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, he would still be ﬁnished.

“That youth…how can he be a Godeater Rat. How?!” Montelo didn’t dare believe it.

“How did it end up being like this?” Oman was completely mystiﬁed. He wasn’t afraid of this technique, but he also knew…“The other three of our ﬁve-person squad, in the face of that Godeater Rat, will deﬁnitely perish. Chauswey and I, against them four, will only barely be able to ﬂee and stay alive.” Oman understood that Reisgem was more than strong enough to tie him down.

As for Reihom, Linley, and Bebe, it would easy for them to kill Chauswey. After killing Chauswey, Linley and the other two could join forces with Reisgem to kill Oman, which would also be simple.

In the same instant that Montelo’s group of four began to ﬂee…

“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”

Destruction-type Sovereign power began to blaze forth from the bodies of Linley and the rest of the four. At the same time, a blurry black light instantly spread out, surrounding and enclosing the four who wanted to ﬂee. Montelo’s group’s speed drastically lowered, and Montelo himself was so terriﬁed that his face turned white. “Amethyst Space!” Black light had completely surrounded Linley’s group of four, and white light surrounded Montelo’s group of four.

Four pursued four!

“Flee separately!” Montelo shouted mentally.

“Haha…” Reisgem’s wild laughter rang out, and at the same time, behind him, an enormous illusion of an Amethyst Godbeast that had 108 spikes on its back appeared. At the same time, 108 rays of violet light, carrying Destruction-type Sovereign power, shot out, instantly sweeping towards the four ﬂeeing ﬁgures.

Innate divine ability – Amethyst Rampart!

With the descent of the Amethyst Rampart, the escape paths for Montelo’s group of four was blocked.

“Bebe.” Reisgem sent smugly.

“Got it. Just watch me!” Bebe, seeing the opportunity, once more executed his innate divine ability!

Chapter 43, Attacked and Killed

“Flee, ﬂee!” Montelo had no intentions of trying to ﬁght back. After realizing that Bebe was a Godeater Rat, he only knew one thing: He had to ﬂee! “Flee separately. Make them pursue us separately, and we might have a chance.” Just as Montelo felt as though he had a hint of hope, the Amethyst Rampart suddenly descended from the heavens!

It was like an enormous, sky-covering net that swept towards them!

“No…” Montelo’s face instantly turned ashen.

The Amethyst Rampart swept towards them, hundreds of meters long, enveloping Montelo, Oman, and the other four within it, and also wanting to seal them within a closed cocoon.

“Break, break!” Oman frantically brandished his spiked mace, viciously smashing against the Amethyst Rampart. Unfortunately, the Amethyst Rampart just rippled a few times like water, completely undamaged. This was the innate divine ability of the Amethyst Godbeasts; how could it be so easily broken? Oman and Chauswey still had at least a bit of conﬁdence; they weren’t afraid of the ‘Godeater’ ability.

But as for Montelo and the silver-haired elder, they were afraid. They didn’t dare to waste a single moment.

“The road ahead is blocked. All we can do is turn and charge backwards. Perhaps we’ll still have a chance!” Montelo and the silver-haired elder turned their heads to discover that the Amethyst Rampart had already ‘closed’, forming into a sealed ‘cocoon’.

There was nowhere to run!

“Haha…” Reisgem was utterly delighted as he stared at Montelo.

As for Bebe, the divine beast’s illusion had already taken form behind him. An enormous phantom of a Godeater Rat was right behind Bebe, staring at Montelo with a pair of cold eyes. Bebe cracked his lips open in a grin, chortling as that unique energy ripple surged forth.

Innate divine ability – Godeater!

“We’re ﬁnished.” Montelo and the silver-haired elder felt utterly powerless.

“No!” Montelo suddenly growled, and then from his body, thousands of strands of white silk appeared, shooting out like spiderwebs towards the nearby silver-haired elder, instantly wrapping him up and giving him a strong pull! It pulled the nearby silver-haired elder to Montelo’s side, just as the energy of the ‘Godeater’ arrived!

The silver-haired elder, unable to react in time, was struck head on.

The thousands of white strands of silk disintegrated, while the silver-haired elder dropped down from the skies. From his body, out rolled a white badge as well as a Highgod artifact, an interspatial ring, and a divine spark which ﬂew out of his head towards Bebe.

“This…” Bebe was stunned.

The nearby Linley, Reisgem and Reihom had been certain that Montelo was going to die, but the scene just now had caused them to be stunned. “He used his own ally as a shield?” Linley was rather puzzled as to whether or not that silver- haired elder had surviving clones in the outside world, and if he would feel hatred for Montelo because of this and go make trouble for him.

What Linley didn’t know was…

The silver-haired elder’s status amongst the ﬁve was the lowest; he was an old servant of Montelo’s. The silver-haired elder might feel resentment in his heart for Montelo’s actions, but he wouldn’t dare take revenge.

“Boss, I can only use my innate divine ability twice in a row. We have to wait for a good while before I can use it again.” Bebe sent helplessly to Linley.

“Montelo really is lucky.” Linley couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

Reisgem, knowing that Bebe wouldn’t be able to use his innate divine ability for now, just began to laugh loudly as he pointed towards Montelo. “Haha, Montelo, you really are decisive, ruthless, and vicious. You sacriﬁced your own partner. I really admire you. But unfortunately, today, you will still die.”

Oman and Chauswey couldn’t help but give Montelo a sidelong glance as well.

Using one of them as a shield. This sort of action did indeed make others feel repulsed and angered. However, as the silver- haired elder was Montelo’s old servant, Oman and Chauswey couldn’t really say anything.

“Haha, an innate divine ability can only be used twice in a row.” Montelo began to laugh loudly. “It seems you won’t be able to kill me.”

As soon as Montelo’s words ﬁnished, the ‘Amethyst Rampart’ suddenly dissipated, its energy returning to the universe. The innate divine ability was only able to persist for a limited time.

“Haha…Oman, let’s go.” Montelo sent.

“You want to run?” Reisgem said with a snicker. “We’ll chase!”

He had spread out his Amethyst Space to a circumference of nearly a thousand kilometers long ago, and a powerful gravitational force caused Montelo, Oman, and Chauswey to move much slower. Reisgem, Linley, Bebe, and Reihom transformed into four black blurs, chasing after them at high speed. And of course, they also scooped up the white badge of that silver-haired elder.

“In this battle, we only acquired a single gold badge. Last time, Reisgem gave us the gold badge, so this time, we’ll deﬁnitely have to give the badge to Reisgem.” Linley understood that if they only gained a single gold badge this time, it would go to Reisgem, and his goal would not be accomplished.

“I have to kill one!”

Linley stared ﬁxedly at Montelo. “Given Montelo’s status, he has to be a commander.”

“Of the three of them, Oman is the hardest to deal with. Let me handle Oman!” Reisgem sent mentally towards the other three. “Reihom…you go deal with that Chauswey. Given your strength, you should be completely certain of success. As for Montelo, Linley, you said your power increased greatly. You should be able to tie him down. If you can kill Montelo, kill him; if you can’t, tie him down. We just need to wait a while, and Bebe will be able to use his innate divine ability a third time, and we’ll kill Montelo!”

“Don’t worry. Leave Montelo to me.” Linley sent mentally. Having made a breakthrough not too long ago, Linley felt extremely conﬁdent.

At this moment in time, the three enemies up ahead who were trapped and slowed down within the Amethyst Space were feeling uneasy as well. “Oman, Chauswey, we deﬁnitely won’t be able to escape like this. The three of us need to ﬂee in three directions. They don’t have three Amethyst Spaces!”

“Fine!”

Oman and Chauswey both acknowledged, and each of the three began to ﬂy in a different direction at high speed; one continued to ﬂight straight forward, while the other two began to ﬂy to the left and to the right, respectively.

“Attack them separately!” Reisgem gave the order. Linley’s group of four, long prepared, didn’t hesitate at all. Linley and Bebe charged straight towards Montelo, while Reisgem chased after Oman and Reihom chased after Chauswey.

“I hope that Godeater Rat won’t chase after me.” Montelo felt hope in his heart. He ﬂed at high speed, and soon escaped the Amethyst Space. “I ﬁnally ﬂew out of the Amethyst Space. Now, it’s time for me to ﬂee.” Just as he was rejoicing, however, a white light suddenly descended once more from the heavens.

A powerful gravitational force instantly wrapped around him, the power of it comparable to that of the Amethyst Space.

Blackstone Space!

“What’s going on?” Montelo turned, only to see the Dragonformed Linley and Bebe in pursuit. “How could I have forgotten about them? That brat of the Azure Dragon clan is also skilled in the Amethyst Space.” He had heard Oman mention this before. “And that’s the Godeater Rat. Terrible!” Montelo feared the Godeater Rat the most! At his level, it would be very hard to kill him, but unfortunately, the innate divine ability of Godeater Rats was simply too terrifying. If it failed, that was one thing, but if it succeeded, the opponent would deﬁnitely die.

“Whoooosh.” Space itself seemed to emit a keening screech.

Linley and Bebe continued to draw closer and closer to Montelo.

“This kid is going to die, no questions.” Linley was completely conﬁdent.

“Boss, don’t worry. Once my innate divine ability’s energy replenishes to a certain degree, I’ll be able to kill him with ease.” Bebe sent with a chortle.

Still ﬂying up ahead, Montelo felt panic in his heart. “If this continues, I’ll only be getting closer and closer to them. I deﬁnitely won’t be able to escape! Even if I’m able to delay for a time, once the Godeater Rat recovers, he’ll still be able to easily annihilate me.” Montelo understood that there was no way for him to run.

“Swoosh!”

Montelo suddenly halted.

Linley and Bebe halted as well, and Linley looked with amusement at Montelo. Laughing softly, he said, “Oh, no longer running?”

Montelo cursed mentally, “Within the Amethyst Space, how can I ﬂee? The more time I spend, the slimmer my chances for survival.” Linley and Bebe weren’t in any hurry to attack; they were happy to drag this out. Once Bebe recovered, he would easily defeat Montelo.

“The two of you….why must you kill me?” Montelo said hurriedly. “As long as you two don’t kill me, I will be willing to satisfy any requirements that you two desire.” “No need.” Linley snickered.

“I have Sovereign’s Might. A large amount of Sovereign’s Might.” Montelo said hurriedly.

Bebe said mockingly, “We don’t lack for Sovereign’s Might.’

“Oh, right. My commander badge. I will give you my commander badge.” Montelo said hurriedly.

“According to the rules of the Planar Battleﬁeld, when leaving the Planar Battleﬁeld, one must be holding a commander badge. Someone who is still alive who doesn’t have a commander badge will have violated the laws of the Planar Battleﬁeld, and will be executed by the Sovereigns.” Linley snickered.

This rule of the Planar Battleﬁeld was made to ensure that people wouldn’t just swap badges with others.

For example, if two commanders entered two separate camps, and then just handed their badges to each other as military merits! This was a sort of cheating. Thus, upon the conclusion of the Planar War, if someone alive didn’t have their commander badge, they would be executed. Executed by a

Sovereign!

After all, that was the time for military merits to be rewarded, or for military merits to be exchanged for a Sovereign artifact. The Sovereigns would create energy-clones.

Those who violated the rules would die.

“I’m willing to do this. Don’t worry. As long as you spare me.” Montelo said frantically. “I will immediately give it to you. As for the commander badge, in the future, I’ll kill someone of my own alliance.”

“Boss, just wait a bit. My innate divine ability’s energy is almost replenished. I just need a little more time.” Bebe sent. “Sparing you…isn’t necessarily out of the question.” Linley suddenly changed his tone.

But Montelo said frantically, “If you agree, then agree. If you refuse, then refuse. The two of you, hurry up.” He too knew very well that Bebe’s innate divine ability energy was replenishing.

“About that…!” Bebe drawled.

“Die, then!” Montelo suddenly exploded forth, and the white energy aura around Montelo instantly bounded towards Bebe like lightning. “These two are clearly just wasting time. I have only one option right now! That’s to kill this Godeater Rat. If I kill him, I still have a chance to live!”

Montelo knew what the situation was; if they wanted to let him leave, why would they hesitate? Hesitation was to waste time; wasting time was to kill him!

“His reaction is quite quick.” Linley hurriedly went forward to welcome him.

“Swoosh!” A white, semi-translucent arrow shot out from Montelo’s body, shooting towards Bebe.

The speed was so quick that Bebe wasn’t able to dodge at all.

It directly entered his body.

“The material defense of Godeater Rats is too strong. I’ll have to try soul attacks.” Montelo knew this point very well, but before he even had a chance to see whether or not Bebe had died, Linley’s attack arrived.

“Crackle…”

Montelo only saw 108 rays of black shadows surge towards him like dragons. Montelo’s divine sense instantly noticed one thing. “A divine sword? An invisible, divine sword?” While still in a state of amazement, those 108 black blurs solidiﬁed into a hole, forming into a sphere that completely enveloped him, and a powerful compressive force instantly affected his entire body. Pressure, compression!

“Slash!”

As fast as lightning, as a ray of light, a sword split through the heavens, piercing towards Montelo’s head.

However, above Montelo’s head, a strange protective layer appeared. With a ‘clang!’ sound, the attack had to withdraw without any results.

“Defensive Sovereign artifacts truly are incredible.” Linley sighed in mental praise. Linley knew that it would be hard for him to kill this person, but he was still able to tie him down for a time. “However, the power of ‘Microcosm’ when using Sovereign’s Might is truly tremendous. Even Montelo isn’t able to react to my sword.”

Linley retreated at high speed. “He isn’t dead?” Montelo turned to look at Bebe, then immediately turned to ﬂee.

“Haha, don’t be in such a rush.”

Linley’s body once more swept forward, and the invisible ‘Mirage’ once more struck out. That blurry black sphere once more surrounded Montelo, and the enraged Montelo’s body once more exploded forth with large amounts of white silk.

“Crackle…”

When the sword struck out, the nearer white strands of silk were all shattered.

“Boss, I’m ready.” Bebe sent mentally.

Linley’s sky-shattering sword thrust landed on Montelo’s body, knocking him backwards slightly. At this moment, Montelo noticed that behind Bebe had appeared the enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat.

“NO!!!” Montelo stared, wide-eyed.

“This time, there’s no one present to be your shield.” Linley watched this scene.

The innate divine ability’s unique energy swept outwards towards Montelo. Montelo wasn’t able to resist at all. He collapsed to the ground, dead!

“Clink!” A gold badge fell out from his body.

Chapter 44, Results

Montelo’s corpse lay there on the ground. This area was utterly silent and still, with only the constant howling of the cold wind.

Linley collected the gold badge, a smile on his face. “This is the second gold badge we acquired in this battle!” In this moment, the only thing Linley could see was this gold badge. As for Montelo’s defensive Sovereign artifact, Linley’s glance swept directly past it. This defensive Sovereign artifact would be reclaimed by the Sovereign later.

Bebe ran over, saying excitedly, “Boss, the second one! Earlier, when that green-haired woman died, the badge was Reisgem’s. This one is ours. Now, we have a total of four commander badges!”

“Right, four! My father, Boss Yale, George, and Delia’s older brother. We have enough already!” Linley let out a long sigh of relief.

Bebe grinned as well.

“Boss, do you think Grandpa Doehring can be brought back to life?” Bebe suddenly said.

Linley was stunned.

“Grandpa Doehring?” Within Linley’s mind, the events from two thousand years ago suddenly reappeared. At that time, he was just an ordinary child, a youth whom Grandpa Doehring gave guidance to, helping him to steadily grow.

In Linley’s life, Grandpa Doehring and Bebe held extremely important places. Whether thousands of years, ten thousand years, or even more time passed, Linley would never forget Grandpa Doehring. The death of Grandpa Doehring was a scar embedded deep within Linley’s heart, an eternal regret.

“Grandpa Doehring’s soul dissipated.” Linley said with a sigh. “If a person’s soul dissipates, does that mean they can’t come back to life again?” Bebe was rather unwilling to accept this.

“Only when the soul remains alive can one reform into an undead.” Linley shook his head. “Bebe, enough of this. Let’s go ﬁnd Reihom and Reisgem.”

Grandpa Doehring’s death…each time this scab was picked at, Linley felt agonized and miserable.

“Alright.” Bebe stopped discussing this, immediately following Linley towards the direction of a powerful surge of Sovereign power.

Next to a desolate mountain, Reihom and Chauswey were undergoing a major battle.

Reihom had already transformed into a ten meter tall giant, his entire body like steel. A king amongst the race of World Titans! Reihom’s ﬁerce, sharp gaze stared towards the little fellow before him. His two arms were like meteors, crashing down again and again. Or he stomped down, or kicked, or stepped… simple motions, but each one caused space to tremble and fracture. The earth itself was constantly rising up and sinking down, obeying Reihom’s wishes.

“Whooosh.” Chauswey continuously dodged, ﬂashing about.

“This big fellow’s attacks are too strong, in particular after he transformed. My speed is inferior to his.” Chauswey was extremely panicked, and the white light around his body continuously ﬂowed out, like strands of silk, protecting him perfectly. “I’ll only have one chance. I have to succeed.”

Suddenly…

Six white ribbons of light shot straight towards Reihom’s chest. Reihom’s giant hand suddenly slapped over in a dance, and of the six ribbons of white light, ﬁve of them coiled around Reihom’s right elbow, while the one remaining white ribbon transformed from being as soft as lace to as sharp as a the tip of a sword. It shot towards Reihom’s chest!

“RAAAAAAAAAAAWR!”

The enormous Reihom suddenly let out an enraged bellow, his howl causing space itself to visibly ripple. The ‘ﬁst’ on his body suddenly became ﬁlled with all sorts of golden magical runes which suddenly lit up. A brilliant golden light spread out from every single magical rune, and Reihom suddenly swung his ﬁst over, smashing through this white ribbons.

Chauswey’s face instantly changed. “How is that possible?”

“Clang!” The white ribbon piercing towards Reihom’s chest only went in slightly, but at a certain depth, it was unable to penetrate any further.

“RAAAAWR!” The furiously roaring Reihom slammed both his arms together in a pincer strike against Chauswey.

Still stunned, Chauswey retreated frantically. Just as he was about to escape Reihom’s attack range, suddenly, Reihom’s two giant palms suddenly shot out with pillars of white light. These two pillars of white light had ﬂecks of golden light on their surfaces, and shot at high speed towards the distant, retreating Chauswey.

“No!” Chauswey instantly generated a large number of white ribbons from his body, forming into layers of protection.

“BANG!”

The two pillars of gold-ﬂecked white light struck directly onto Chauwey’s body. The many layers of protective ribbons surrounding Chauswey’s body were shattered inch by inch, then the two pillars of light ﬂashed forward as Chauswey watched in terror, entering his body. With a terrifying, thunderous sound, Chauswey was transformed into dust.

Reihom’s body shrank.

“Whew. Whew!” Reihom’s chest heaved like a bellow, letting out a few heavy pants, his face ashen. The supreme technique he had used just now was something that he wouldn’t use save at a critical moment. Once he used it, for a short period of time, his power would drop dramatically, and it would be quite some time before he recovered.

“I didn’t expect that this Chauswey would be so hard to deal with.” Reihom had to rest for quite a while before he recovered. “Fortunately, we got another commander badge.”

Reihom, from the corner of his eyes, saw a commander badge lying on the ground. As for the two rings, Reihom didn’t even look at them. He knew that one was an interspatial ring, while the other was a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.

“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

Two auras were moving close rapidly.

“Eh?” Reihom turned his head to look, then let out a sigh of relief. The newcomers were Linley and Bebe. “Reihom, you killed Chauswey?” Linley, seeing the rubble on the ground, couldn’t help but laugh.

“I had to spend quite a bit of effort to kill him.” Reihom had a rare smile on his face. “That Chauswey trained in the Laws of Water and was skilled in defense. Despite my attack power, I nonetheless actually had to use a forbidden technique to kill him. Right, did you kill Montelo?” Reihom had a hint of anticipation in his eyes. Originally, it was his dear friend who had been killed by Montelo.

“Killed’m.” Linley ﬂipped his hand over. “This is his commander badge.”

“Good!”

Reihom couldn’t help but feel wildly overjoyed.

Right at this moment, another aura drew close at high speed. Linley’s group of three turned to look. The newcomer was Reisgem. Reisgem glanced at the commander badge in Linley’s hands, and he couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Haha, Montelo, that bastard. He ﬁnally died! That fellow has pissed me off for the last time. I want to see how he’ll continue to be so boastful in the future. Reihom, you killed Chauswey?”

“Yes.” Reihom took out a commander badge as well.

“Hey, Reisgem, what about you?” Bebe chortled, and Linley also laughed as he looked towards Reisgem. Everyone was in a very good mood.

“Me?” Reisgem couldn’t help but let out an awkward laugh. “Well, uh…this is a bit embarrassing. Although I was able to surpass him in speed, Oman really is hard to deal with. He was able to block my attacks, and then the two of us went underground into a major battle. That fellow actually ran deep into the underground region, to the place where spatial rifts randomly appear…that place is too dangerous. In the end, I had to give up.”

Battling deep underground was indeed very dangerous. “For Oman to have been forced by you to do that is already pretty catastrophic for him.” Linley understood that unless he had no other options, Oman wouldn’t have made that choice.

Although Oman’s strength was excellent, when trapped in the Amethyst Field, he was indeed at a disadvantage. Given Reisgem’s Sovereign weapon, Oman would be able to block, but as time went on, if he slipped a single time, it would be the end. For him to dive deep underground meant that Oman was desperately trying to ﬁnd a hope of life in a sea of death.

“Haha, most importantly of all, we killed Montelo. No matter what, we’ve had a major victory.” Reisgem began to laugh. “This time, we got a total of three commander badges. Linley, last time, we gave you a badge. This time, of the three badges, two should be mine and one yours. No objections, right?”

“No objections.” Linley said with a laugh.

One badge was enough. “But next time, if there are any more commander badges, they’ll be ours.” Bebe chortled.

“Of course.” Reisgem raised his eyebrows and laughed. “Our four-person squad is all but invincible. Uh, but of course, we’d best not encounter any more Highgod Paragons.” Linley’s group felt nervous when they thought of Bayer. Highgod Paragons really were overly powerful.

The Divine Light Plane. Deep within the Godsgaol Sea, within the Aumight Island.

Aumight Island was the headquarters of the number one clan of the universe, the Augusta clan. The Augusta clan was extremely large, because the Chief Sovereign of Light was himself just of an ordinary race. Naturally, his reproductive abilities were great, and his progeny were numerous. This caused the Augusta clan to vastly outstrip the Four Divine Beasts clan in number.

Aumight Island had nearly a million people. And this was just the place where the elites of the Augusta clan lived!

The Augusta clan’s true population was spread out throughout the eighty one islands nearby Aumight Island. They numbered in the hundreds of millions. Although numerous, many were only of ordinary talent…but of course, with such a large base, a few geniuses would occasionally appear.

Many of the members of the Augusta clan desired to join Aumight Island.

“Rustle…” The waters of the sea slapped against the shores of Aumight Island.

Atop Aumight Island, the elites of the clan were separated from each other. Most of them were rather solitary and arrogant. As the elites of the number one clan of the universe, they naturally had much to be proud about. However, once they looked towards the center of Aumight Island, to that towering white temple completely made out of marble which was more than ten thousand meters tall, they had envy in their eyes. Within the Temple of Augusta.

A ﬁgure strode forward through a corridor, which had paintings hanging on each sides of it. The guards standing at the sides of the corridor all immediately bowed.

“Your Highness!” “Your Highness!”

The ﬁgure just strode forward past them.

“What’s wrong with his Highness? Why does he have such an ugly look on his face?” Two Emissaries discussed softly amongst themselves.

Before a ten-meter tall, unadorned violet gate. The ﬁgure came to a halt here and said in a low voice, “Send the message that I wish to see the Patriarch.”

“Yes, your Highness. Your Highness, please wait a moment.” The two violet-robed guards said, and one of them bowed, then retreated into the corridor.

“How did this happen! Reisgem…and that Azure Dragon clan punk. And that Godeater Rat!” This ‘Highness’ was Montelo. However, now that Montelo had lost his most powerful clone, he was no longer one of the most powerful, towering ﬁgures of the Augusta clan. But of course, the people in the clan didn’t know it yet.

Moments later, the violet-robed guard came out.

“Your Highness, please enter. The Patriarch is within, waiting for you.” The violet-robed guard said respectfully.

Montelo directly entered.

This was the residence of the Patriarch. It had a dining hall, a meeting hall, beautifully adorned rooms, and more. Montelo saw the ﬁgure standing atop a balcony, and upon seeing it, even someone as arrogant as Montelo had to lower his head. “Patriarch, my most powerful divine clone died!” “Hm?” The white-robed ﬁgure couldn’t help but turn. He had a pair of sharp, sword-shaped eyebrows, and a ﬁery red dot in his forehead.

This person was the Patriarch of the Augusta clan, and the most successful of the 182 children of the Chief Sovereign of Light. He was the strongest of them all. Although the Chief Sovereign of Light couldn’t give him too many Sovereign artifacts, by making his other Emissaries work together, he was able to ensure that the Patriarch acquired sufﬁcient Sovereign artifacts.

The Augusta Patriarch had three Sovereign artifacts! Given that he was extremely powerful to begin with, even a Highgod Paragon would at most be able to push him into chaotic space.

But even if he was pushed into chaotic space, the Chief Sovereign of Light would probably be able to save him.

“What happened?” The Augusta Patriarch said in a low voice, and the ﬁery red spot in his forehead expanded slightly.

Montelo lowered his head, his words ﬁlled with resentment. “Patriarch, it was Reisgem! I wasn’t afraid of him, but who would have imagined that he brought a youth. That youth was actually a Godeater Rat!”

“Godeater Rat?” The Augusta Patriarch instantly understood.

It was very hard to kill this nephew of his. But a Godeater Rat could indeed accomplish it.

“Patriarch, the ones who killed me were a youth of the Azure Dragon clan and that Godeater Rat. They are currently with Reisgem?” Montelo said with pain.

“Reisgem?” The Augusta Patriarch shook his head. “That’s the only child of the Redbud Sovereign. I deﬁnitely will not agree to Reisgem being killed.” The Augusta Patriarch was quite decisive about this. He knew that even his father, the Chief Sovereign of Light, wouldn’t easily ﬁght with the Redbud Sovereign. Yes, the Chief Sovereign of Light was strong enough to deal with the Redbud Sovereign. Unfortunately, the Redbud Sovereign belonged to the seven great Sovereigns of Destruction. Their leader, the ‘Chief Sovereign of Destruction’, surpassed the Chief Sovereign of Light.

More importantly, the Chief Sovereign of Light couldn’t possibly go deal with another Sovereign for the sake of a grandchild.

“Patriarch, it will most likely be very hard for me to regain my former power. I know this puts you in a difﬁcult position, but I hope you will consider the contributions I have rendered to the clan over all these years and get revenge for me.” Montelo’s face was ﬁlled with indignation, and he said in a low voice, “I didn’t plan to kill Reisgem. I only hope, Patriarch, that we can kill that Azure Dragon clan’s brat, and that Godeater Rat!”

Montelo deeply hated Linley and Bebe. If it hadn’t been for Linley entangling him, he would have ﬂed long ago. After all, Bebe didn’t have the ability to stop him. The Augusta Patriarch was silent.

Montelo said hurriedly, “Patriarch, our clan has suffered major losses this time. Lowe and Chauswey both died. Actually, my personal grudge is a small matter, but we lost four experts. Can it be that the Augusta clan isn’t going to respond at all? What about our clan’s face? If our clan doesn’t respond, others will secretly laugh at us.”

“Hm?” The Augusta Patriarch lifted an eyebrow. Clearly, he was moved by these words.

Chapter 45, Arrangements

The Augusta Patriarch was frowning. He stood there on the balcony, actually turning to stare into the distant Godsgaol Sea. He was silent.

“Patriarch.” Montelo said hurriedly. But the Augusta Patriarch didn’t agree. Montelo knew…that the Patriarch would deﬁnitely consider things carefully, and so he no longer rushed him. In his heart though, he felt frantic. “Given the Patriarch’s temper, it’s quite possible that the Patriarch won’t get involved in this matter. If that’s the case, who can I ask to kill the Godeater Rat and the other one?”

“No. I have to kill those two.” Montelo continuously pondered what he should do.

Although Montelo was an important member of the Augusta clan, he didn’t have any important relationships with Highgod Paragons.

It was very difﬁcult to gain revenge after being killed in the Planar Battleﬁeld. After all, commanders capable of killing other commanders in the Planar Battleﬁeld were all powerful. Only Paragons would be completely certain of success in killing them.

There were only a few Highgod Paragons, and they were scattered across the planes. Some Highgod Paragons lay hidden within material planes, while others lived in seclusion in other places. To invite a Paragon was a very difﬁcult task.

Not everyone was like the elven expert, ‘Occluar’, who had a Paragon in his debt.

Forget about Montelo; even the Augusta Patriarch, the Patriarch of the number one clan, was not completely certain he would be able to invite a Paragon.

“Describe the power of Reisgem’s squad in detail.” The Augusta Patriarch continued to stare towards the Godsgaol Sea as he spoke calmly.

“Yes.” Montelo was overjoyed. He hurriedly said, “Their squad has four people. Reisgem, an expert close to Reihom in power, a youth of the Azure Dragon clan, and that Godeater Rat! Of the four of them, Reisgem is the strongest. But of course, the Godeater Rat is terrifying as well. That innate divine ability is too formidable.”

“Oh…” The Augusta Patriarch suddenly turned, staring at him with awl-like eyes. “That expert close to Oman in power; there’s nothing special about him?”

“Oman is enough to deal with him.” Montelo said with certainty.

If Oman were to ﬁght Reihom, indeed, as Oman had a Sovereign weapon, he was a counter to Reihom…although the ﬁght would be a tough one, Oman would still be able to kill Reihom.

“To kill that Azure Dragon youth and that Godeater Rat will not be easy.” The Augusta Patriarch shook his head slightly. Actually, he was rather hesitant on whether or not to send out any forces. In truth, Lowe and Chauswey didn’t belong to the Augusta clan. Although they died, the clan’s power hadn’t been impacted much.

If a Sovereign’s Emissary was lost, the Sovereign could accept another one.

Montelo was frantic. He hurriedly said, “If they just killed me, that’s one thing. But this time, they killed four of our people. And, Patriarch, you know what Reisgem is like. He’s the sort that loves to cause trouble. He’s had problems with our clan for a long time now. Now that he’s gained a victory, he’ll deﬁnitely go bragging to everyone about it. If our clan doesn’t react at all, then…”

The Augusta Patriarch frowned, that ﬁery dot in his forehead seeming to emit a ﬂaming light.

The Augusta Patriarch immediately gave the order. “Montelo, go ask Oman to come. At the same time, please ask someone to invite Chegwin [Qie’ge’wen] as well.” Although Oman’s most powerful divine clone was in the Planar Battleﬁeld, he still had a clone that remained within the clan. As for ‘Chegwin’, he also lived in the Godsgaol Sea. He was also an Emissary of the Chief Sovereign of Light, and was fairly close to the Augusta clan.

“Yes.” Montelo couldn’t help but feel overjoyed.

“It seems there is hope.” Montelo was incomparably excited. Although he didn’t know what arrangements the Patriarch would make, since he already had inquired about Reisgem’s squad’s strength, Montelo believed that the Patriarch would send out a squad that would deﬁnitely be successful.

Not attacking was one thing, but if they were to attack, they must be successful.

The Planar Battleﬁeld was as desolate as ever. “Whoooosh.” The wind howled, and sand ﬂew everywhere. The cold wind blew, and two ﬁgures were walking shoulder-to- shoulder within it. At a closer distance, it could be seen that one was a short silver-haired, golden robed, hard-faced man. This was the single survivor of the earlier battle, Oman.

Next to Oman was a tall, skinny man in a green robe. There was a closed third eye in his forehead. This person was Chegwin.

“The Patriarch really dotes on Montelo. He actually intends to get revenge for this matter.” Oman snickered. “And he even invited the two of us to work together.”

Chegwin let out a calm laugh which seemed quite eerie. “Oman, the Patriarch is the most beloved son of the Chief Sovereign. The Patriarch personally asked me to come; how could I not give him face? But Oman…for Reisgem’s group of four to slaughter you to such a degree means they deﬁnitely are quite strong.”

“I told you, the only one hard to deal with is that Godeater Rat.” Oman said self-deprecatingly.

If the results of that battle were to be spread out, it would affect Oman’s reputation as well.

“But this time, we are completely certain of victory.” Oman smiled.

“Not necessarily, unless that person agrees.” Chegwin shook his head. “He won’t necessarily agree.”

“If he doesn’t agree, then just the two of us alone will ﬁnd it rather hard.” Oman looked towards the front.

While chatting, the two of them had already arrived at a military camp. The guards of the camp immediately stared at them vigilantly. Generally speaking, only supreme experts would dare to roam the Planar Battleﬁeld like this. Oman immediately said, “Go report to your commander. Say that I, Oman, have come to pay my respects to him.” “Milords, please wait a moment.” One of the soldiers bowed slightly, then retreated inside to report.

Moments later…

“The two of you, the Lord Commander has invited you in.” The soldier returned.

Oman and Chegwin smiled as they walked in, shoulder-to- shoulder. They quickly arrived at an ancient, unadorned courtyard. Currently, at the gates of the courtyard, there was a handsome, golden-haired youth. The golden-haired youth looked at Oman and Chegwin, then immediately began to laugh. “Oman, ah, I didn’t expect that Mr. Chegwin would come as well. It’s quite rare for the two of you to come visit me. Please, come in, come in!”

Oman stepped forward, saying in a soft voice, “Ramson [La’mu’seng], is Mr. Magnus here?”

“Him.” The golden-haired youth was stunned. “You came to see him?” “Right.” Oman nodded slightly.

Right at this moment, a calm voice rang out from within. “Oman, Chegwin, since the two of you have come to see me, just come in. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen you two as well.”

Oman and Chegwin didn’t hesitate any further, immediately following the golden-haired youth inside.

Within the courtyard, there was a stone table and a pitch- black chair, atop which was a man who was casually ﬂipping through a ﬁnger-thick book. This man had silver-colored, straight, ﬂowing hair that fell to his waist. It was hanging loose, seeming quite relaxed. The man’s skin was crystalline, and his face was completely clean, without any stubble.

The only facial hair was two silver eyebrows which drooped downwards to his ears. “Mr. Magnus.” Oman and Chegwin bowed slightly.

Magnus placed the book on the table, then laughed calmly as he gave them a sidelong glance. “Sit.”

Oman and Chegwin both sat down. They unconsciously glanced at each other, both feeling a hint of pressure. This ‘Magnus’ who was in front of them was a true ultimate expert of the Celestial Realm. The outside world was rife with rumors that Magnus was supposedly a Highgod Paragon, but Oman and Chegwin actually knew for certain…

That Magnus was indeed a Paragon.

As a Highgod Paragon who trained in the Edicts of Fate, it could be said that Magnus’ expertise in the soul could be described as the highest amongst Highgods.

“It seems as though the two of you have something you want to discuss, but ﬁnd hard to.” Magnus laughed calmly. Chegwin took a deep breath. “Mr. Magnus, let me ﬁrst describe this matter for you. Not long ago, Reisgem led a small squad, which in the Planar Battleﬁeld exterminated the squad Montelo was leading. Four members died, leaving only Oman as the sole survivor.”

“That formidable?” Magnus was rather surprised. He couldn’t help but look at Oman.

Oman said, awkwardly, “Their squad has a Godeater Rat.”

Magnus now understood, and the nearby golden-haired youth laughed. “I heard of this Godeater Rat long ago. So he belongs to Reisgem’s squad. Montelo’s squad lost four people; only Oman escaped? So Montelo himself died as well?”

“Right.” Oman nodded.

“It was Patriarch Goldman who invited you to come, yes?” Magnus laughed calmly. Oman laughed helplessly, “Mr. Magnus, you’ve guessed everything. We’ll be straightforward. Indeed, the Patriarch asked us to invite you to assist us. After all…there aren’t many people in the Planar Battleﬁeld who would listen to the Augusta clan, and even fewer who can deal with Reisgem.”

“Does Goldman have mental issues? He wants to act against Reisgem?” Magnus couldn’t help but frown.

There weren’t many who would dare say that Goldman had mental issues. Magnus was one of them. In addition, Magnus and Goldman had a rather deep relationship between the two of them; in the past, when the two of them were weak, they had roamed the Divine Light Plane together. To invite a Paragon to help, relying on the backing of a Sovereign was useless. The only thing you could rely on was friendship and debts.

“No, no.” Oman chortled. “Don’t worry about that. The Patriarch doesn’t intend to act against Reisgem. The Patriarch wants to deal with the other three.”

“I can’t kill the Godeater Rat.” Magnus shook his head.

“Right. Mr. Magnus, you are worried about Beirut?” Oman said.

The nearby golden-haired youth, ‘Ramson’, laughed. “Mr. Magnus doesn’t worry about that, of course. Only, can it be that you don’t know that some time ago, Mr. Bayer personally went to go kill that Godeater Rat? He wasn’t able to. Mr. Bayer even stayed here for a few months to discuss this.”

“Bayer?” Oman and Chegwin looked at each other.

“The Godeater Rat’s defense is incredibly strong, and he has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. The only method is to push him into a spatial rift; otherwise, there is no way to kill him.” Magnus shook his head. “Even in chaotic space, given his material defense, he will probably be able to survive. At most, he’ll be lost. If Beirut asks for his Sovereign to help ﬁnd him in chaotic space, it’s very possible the Sovereign will.”

Oman and Chegwin only now understood how hard Godeater Rats were to deal with.

“If you want to attack, you can only kill the youth of the Azure Dragon clan and that other person.” Magnus said with a calm laugh.

“Mr. Magnus, if you personally get involved, there deﬁnitely won’t be any problems.” Oman said hurriedly. Chegwin looked expectantly towards Magnus as well.

Magnus let out a chuckled. “What did that kid Goldman say to you?” Magnus looked at Oman.

“He said that if you help him out this time, Mr. Magnus, he will give you, sir, a mutated cloudstone.” Oman said rather uncomprehendingly. He didn’t have any idea what the Patriarch’s words meant; although mutated cloudstones were fairly rare in the Divine Light Plane, they weren’t that valuable either, less than a Highgod artifact.

Was a mutated cloudstone enough to ask Magnus to intervene? How could that be made to happen so cheaply? “That kid, Goldman….he’s always so sly.” Magnus laughed and rose to his feet. “Then I’ll accompany you on this trip.”

Oman and Chegwin couldn’t help but feel surprised. They hadn’t expected that this offer would successfully result in Magnus helping out.

“However, I’ll only be responsible for holding off Reisgem. You can kill the other two. As for the Godeater Rat…you can just ignore him.” Magnus laughed calmly. This ‘Chegwin’ who the Augusta Patriarch had asked to come was also a supreme expert who didn’t fear the ‘Godeater’ ability.

The three of them, together, would be able to easily deal with Reisgem’s group. In truth, Magnus by himself was more than enough.

“Ramson, I’ll make a trip for now.” Magnus said with a laugh.

“I’ll wait for your victorious return, sir.” The golden-haired youth laughed.

Magnus immediately led Oman and Chegwin to leave the military camp. Watching the three depart, the golden-haired youth let out a sigh. “I hadn’t imagined that the Augusta Patriarch would actually be able to invite Mr. Magnus. It seems as though there are no doubts at all about how this battle will end up.”

Chapter 46, The Unﬁnished Battle

The desolate landscape. Three ﬁgures were striding across it, shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Mr. Magnus, right here.” Oman said.

Magnus looked about, then nodded slightly. “When Reisgem’s group of four chased after you three, they separated and attacked separately. Then with this place at the center, let’s start searching out in a circular area.” Magnus believed that Reisgem’s group shouldn’t have gone too far; they should have found a nearby place to rest.

“Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Magnus.” Chegwin laughed.

“I’ll just consider it as going out for a walk.” Magnus said with a calm laugh. “But if we are going to do this, you’ll have to make your preparations. It might take a very, very long time.” If things were fast, it might just take a day or two, but if Reisgem was resting more than a few hundred thousand kilometers away, they’d probably have to spend more than a century.

“Mr. Magnus, if you have the patience to wait, how can the two of us be impatient when accompanying you?” Chegwin and Oman immediately followed Magnus, carefully inspecting their surroundings. Generally speaking, the radius of a commander’s divine sense was fairly small, but for the likes of Soul Mutates and Paragons or those who used Sovereign’s Might, the radius would be much larger.

After all, Highgod Paragons had evolved souls as well.

The three began from this point and spread out in an ever- increasing circle. This was really quite boring, but Magnus wasn’t impatient in the slightest, leisurely carrying out his stated plans, as though he was on a walking tour of the Planar Battleﬁeld.

Time moved on silently, and in the blink of an eye, three months passed.

During their journey, each time Magnus encountered a mountain or a hill, he would go deep in for a search. Today, they arrived at Ramhorn Mountain!

“Ramhorn Mountain is fairly large. I’ll need to spend a bit of time to do a detailed inspection.” Magnus instructed them, and then he ﬂew closer to Ramhorn Mountain. He ﬁrst stood at the base of Ramhorn Mountain, giving it a careful inspection, but moments later, his voice entered Oman and Chegwin’s minds. “Haha, the two of you, come over. I found them.”

After having searched for three months, even Magnus felt happy at having found the target.

“Found them?”

Oman and Chegwin revealed looks of delight and laughter on their faces as they immediately ﬂew over. “The two of you, don’t make any moves.” Magnus instructed mentally.

As a Highgod Paragon, his soul had evolved once more. Unless a Highgod Paragon intentionally wanted to reveal his soul aura, as long as he was careful, commanders wouldn’t be able to sense him at all. Originally, when Bayer had located Linley and them, he had used the same method.

Only after Bayer had voluntarily revealed his aura did Linley and the others realize he was present. By then, Bayer had already entered the corridor.

“The four of them are gathered together in one place and chatting. Reisgem and the other four really know how to enjoy themselves. They actually built a quite impressive estate for themselves inside.” Magnus laughed mentally towards them. Moments later, Magnus said in an understanding tone, “Oh, so the Godeater Rat is ‘Bebe’. The two others are called Linley and Reihom.”

Clearly, he had learned their names from their conversation.

“Linley, Bebe, Reihom?” Chegwin and Oman memorized the names. Prior to this, they didn’t know the names of the enemies.

“Prepare to act.” Magnus said with a calm laugh. “Do as I instruct…” Magnus gave missions to Oman and Chegwin for them to carry out.

In the estate within Ramhorn Mountain.

After the complete victory they had won, Linley’s group had once more returned to the cave estate within Ramhorn Mountain. Linley’s group of four was extremely happy here. Linley’s other divine clones were focused on training, while his main body accompanied Bebe and Reisgem in idle chatter.

“Come, cheers.” Reisgem chortled as he raised a cup.

Linley, Bebe, and Reihom all laughed and raised their cups as well, downing it together.

“Bebe, as your elder bro, I don’t want to put you down.” Reisgem slapped Bebe on the shoulders, then laughed, “But look at me. Over the past three months, I’ve still spent most of my time training, while occasionally having some fun with everyone. But you? As soon as you train for a day or two, you lose the patience to train any further. How long will it take for you to make a breakthrough in fusing like this?”

“Fusing?” Bebe rubbed his nose, then chortled, “Forget it. I had better just eat more divine sparks and strengthen my body to the limit ﬁrst. Based on what Grandpa said, I’m still quite far off from the limit. It’s still hard for me to even start to forge godspark weapons.” As he spoke, Bebe grabbed a Highgod spark, then tossed it into his mouth.

Bebe had acquired many Highgod sparks from Beirut. Highgod sparks, to Beirut, were nothing at all. After all, normally speaking, divine sparks were indestructible. Aside from Godeater Rats, who were able to destroy them, others weren’t able to do it at all. Thus, the number of divine sparks in the Netherworld, Infernal Realm, and other places was constantly growing. But of course, Sovereigns collected divine sparks as well, so as to reduce the number of divine sparks in the various places. Otherwise, if there were too many divine sparks, they would become worthless. What the Sovereigns did was to collect large amounts of divine sparks, and at a certain number, the Overgods would come collect them.

If Beirut wanted divine sparks, he naturally was able to easily acquire a large number of divine sparks from the Sovereign for Bebe to eat.

“Eating divine sparks. How badass is that.” Reisgem sighed in praise. “I want to do it as well, but I can’t.”

Bebe was startled, then lowered his head to look at the divine spark he was holding. He immediately began to laugh. “Reisgem, I didn’t notice it before you said anything, but now that you say it, I really do feel…as though eating divine sparks is a unique trait that no one else but me possesses. Uh, and my grandfather as well.” As he spoke, Bebe intentionally tossed a divine spark into the air, and as it descended, it just so happened to fall into his mouth. After eating, Bebe smugly raised an eyebrow towards Linley and Reisgem.

Linley, seeing this, couldn’t help but laugh.

Prior to this, Linley had always carried many great burdens, but now, Linley’s life was quite simple. After all, he had already acquired four commander badges. “Now, what we need to do is to slowly wait, until the conclusion of the ﬁnal battle.” Linley wasn’t preparing to participate in the ﬁnal battle at all.

Having already acquired enough commander badges, Linley would at most watch the ﬁnal battle to its conclusion. Linley didn’t believe that he would be able to acquire ten more commander badges and trade for a Sovereign artifact.

Right at this moment…

“Eh? Divine sense?” Linley’s group of four rose to their feet, stunned. They sensed a powerful divine sense sweep towards them. What Linley’s group had no idea was that…this was the divine sense which Magnus had only intentionally revealed after watching for a long period of time and after having ﬁnished his combat preparations.

“Either a Paragon or a Soul Mutate Highgod.” Linley instantly came to this conclusion.

“BANG!” An explosive sound blasted forth.

“Reisgem!” A gentle voice rang out. Linley’s group of four looked through the courtyard gate. They were able to clearly see three ﬁgures ﬂying in, instantly arriving within the front courtyard. Linley’s group looked closely at the group. The leader was a pale-faced, beardless man with drooping silver eyebrows. Upon seeing this person, Linley’s group of four was terriﬁed.

“We meet again.” Oman laughed coldly.

“It’s actually the three of them.” Linley knew something about the supreme experts. “The leader is Magnus, a suspected Highgod Paragon. Judging from the divine sense he sent out just now, he probably really is a Paragon. Next to him is Oman and Chegwin. Chegwin’s true body is that of a divine beast, the ‘Suanni Lion’. Terrible!”

Chegwin was even harder to deal with than Oman! As for Magnus, he was undefeatable.

The arrival of these three ﬁgures utterly terriﬁed Linley’s group of four.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” Reisgem strode forward and shouted loudly, while hurriedly sending via divine sense to Linley and the others, “The situation is bad. That Magnus is a Highgod Paragon. Chegwin has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, and Bebe won’t be of any use. If we ﬁght against them, we have no chance at all. The only method is to ﬂee! Immediately, we’ll scatter in all directions. The more of us who escape, the better.”

“What are we doing?” Magnus let out a calm laugh.

“BANG!” The ﬂat gray marble ﬂoor of the courtyard suddenly rippled like in a tempest, sweeping towards Magnus and the other two, blocking their vision.

“Flee!” Reisgem called out frantically.

Linley, Bebe, and Reihom didn’t even think of ﬁghting; not hesitating at all, they turned and ﬂed, boring through the nearby stone walls.

“Boss, quick, ﬂee. Right now, you and Reihom are in great danger.” Bebe sent frantically. Bebe also understood…that of the four, he had the most monstrous defensive and others wouldn’t be able to kill him. As for Reisgem, others wouldn’t dare to kill him. Thus, Linley and Reihom were in the worst situation.”

Linley’s body merged directly into the stone wall, and then passed through it at high speed, ﬂeeing.

Worldwalking! “None of you will escape!” A calm voice barked out. At the same time, in a circumference of hundreds of meters, the mountain stones began to rumble, then collapse into dust. Very bizarrely, a part of the entire Ramhorn Mountain disappeared, and quite a few stones fell into the opening. The ﬂeeing ﬁgures of Linley and the others were revealed.

“What power is this?” Linley was stunned.

This was a sort of restrictive power, a power that made it hard for others to resist. Linley’s face changed. “The Edicts of Fate!” Linley knew that amongst the four Edicts, the Edicts of Fate were the strangest, most terrifying of Edicts. The Edicts of Fate were also exceedingly hard to train in. ‘Oracular Magic’ was nothing more than a simpliﬁed version of employing the Edicts of Fate; it couldn’t even be considered a basic form of it.

A Highgod Paragon that trained in the Edicts of Fate was even harder to deal with than other Highgod Paragons.

Two ﬁgures ﬂew over at high speed. “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” These two charged to the edges, staring coldly at Linley and the others.

“You won’t be able to escape. I told you already.” Magnus said calmly.

“Magnus, what are you going to do.” Reisgem said angrily. Someone who trained in the Edicts of Fate was very hard to deal with. Magnus was far harder to deal with than Bayer!

“Don’t worry. I’ve only come to deal with these two…” Magnus pointed with a calm laugh towards Linley and Reihom. “Linley and Reihom. Once we kill those two, this matter will be over. Reisgem, you other two can continue to remain here in the Planar Battleﬁeld.”

“In your dreams!” Bebe stood next to Linley and howled angrily.

Linley stared cautiously at Oman, then at the nearby Magnus. Linley also knew that this time, things were truly grim! Magnus was a Highgod Paragon, while Oman and Chegwin were also very powerful. To leave alive…would be too hard. “If Mr. Leylin was here, there would still be hope. But even if Mr. Leylin knew that I was in danger, he wouldn’t be able to cross that great distance and arrive in time.” Linley knew very well that even Sovereigns were incapable of teleportation, much less Paragons.

This time, it was very dangerous.

“Magnus, you…” Reisgem was just about to speak.

Magnus just barked, “Reisgem, you’d best not interfere. Give my accomplishments in the soul, it wouldn’t be too hard to kill you. Just stand and watch.”

Reisgem’s response to Magnus was a ﬂashing violet spear that ﬂew towards him.

“How boring.” Magnus waved his hand, and a long silver whip appeared. The long whip coiled through the air, wrapping around the spear, and then it coiled further down the spear towards Reisgem, so fast that just as Reisgem was about to use his innate divine ability, he was bound by the long silver whip.

Instantly, Reisgem was tightly bound by the long silver whip.

“You are no match for me.” Magnus said calmly.

“Do it.” Magnus said to Oman and Chegwin.

Linley and Reihom didn’t ﬂee, because they knew…that in front of Magnus, they wouldn’t be able to escape. In terms of both techniques and speed, they were vastly outstripped. When they ﬂed from Bayer’s attack, they were able to do so only because Bayer’s sole target was Bebe; he didn’t want to kill the others.

But this time, it was the opposite; Magnus didn’t want to kill Bebe or Reisgem, just Linley and Reihom.

Linley and Oman stared at each other.

“He wants to kill me. Even if I die, I’ll take this Oman down with me.” The Dragonformed Linley, with a ‘bang’, caused black Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might to suddenly blaze about him.

Oman’s body also blazed with light-type Sovereign’s Might. Oman laughed coldly at Linley. “So you are Linley. Last time, I let you escape. This time, you won’t be able to.”

“Our last battle wasn’t ﬁnished. This time, let’s continue.” Linley stared coldly at Oman. Prior to this, Linley was far from being Oman’s match, but now that Linley had fused four profound mysteries, what would the results to this battle be?

Chapter 47, Suicidal?

Within the ruins of the cave, Reisgem’s side was clearly at a disadvantage.

“Bastard, bastard!!!” Reisgem bellowed, struggling wildly, but that long silver whip was coiled tightly around him like a python. Reisgem even wanted to transform his body into energy to escape, but the divine power of the long silver whip completely sealed the area around Reisgem. Even if Reisgem transformed into energy, he wouldn’t be able to escape.

“Magnus, I will make you regret this!” Reisgem howled.

Magnus glanced sideways at Reisgem, then laughed calmly. “Reisgem, save your strength.” After speaking, he glanced sideways towards Linley and Oman. The two appeared to be about to start ﬁghting.

That thick spiked mace, ﬂashing with cold light, appeared in Oman’s hands. He grinned savagely. “Linley, I will use this to smash your head in and make your soul dissipate. You should feel proud to die by my hands, and by my Sovereign weapon.” “Bebe.” Linley growled.

“Boss.” Bebe hurriedly moved to Linley’s side.

“What, you want to ask a helper?” Oman laughed. Oman knew exactly how strong Bebe was. Although his innate divine ability was indeed frightening, aside from it, Bebe’s attack power truly wasn’t capable of threatening him. “The two of you can join forces. I don’t mind at all.”

In actual combat, he could completely ignore Bebe.

Linley stretched his hand out, handing the four commander badges to Bebe, then sent mentally, “Bebe, remember, even if I die, you need to go ﬁnd the Chief Sovereign of Death.”

“Boss.” Bebe looked worriedly towards Linley, while at the same time he stored the commander badges into his interspatial ring.

After completing this action, Linley let out a sigh of relief. If his death resulted in even these four badges being lost, that would be horrible.

“Boss, don’t do anything stupid. Don’t ﬁght with this Oman to the death.” Bebe sent, trying to persuade him. “In a bit, try and come up with a way to ﬂee. I’ll go tie down that Magnus! That Magnus won’t be able to kill me, at most push me into chaotic space. Others might die in it, but my body is comparable to a defensive Sovereign artifact, and I won’t die in chaotic space. Boss, our souls are connected. So long as you survive, afterwards, you can ﬁnd Grandpa Beirut and, through our soul link, you’ll bring me out one day.”

Right at this moment, explosive sounds could be heard from nearby.

Reihom had already begun to ﬁght against Chegwin.

“Linley, you really are long-winded.” Oman let out a low snort, then came charging over like a mountain.

“Whoosh…” That spiked mace smashed through the air, slamming down towards Linley’s head. Suddenly, a hundred meter diameter sphere of black light appeared, and a powerful gravity was applied to Oman’s body.

Blackstone Space!

“Hmph.” Linley’s dark golden eyes stared at his opponent, and his draconic scale covered legs launched off the ground, shooting him upwards.

Mirage easily slashed a long tear through space. This sword contained Linley’s most powerful attack, but for now, he didn’t use the spatial compression part of it. Seeing this, the nervous Bebe couldn’t help but frown. “Boss isn’t using Microcosm; he’s giving up the spatial compression part of the attack. The enemy is completely capable of blocking this attack.”

This attack, aside from lacking the spatial compression aspect, was as powerful as the normal ‘Microcosm’ attack. “Clang!”

Mirage struck head on against the spiked mace, and Linley couldn’t help but move backwards.

“Eh?” Oman looked in astonishment at this. In the past, when Linley had exchanged blows with him, he was able to injure Linley with each smashing blow, to the point of knocking Mirage back onto Linley’s body. The advantage was quite obvious. But now, his attack was only able to hold a slight advantage.

Linley grinned coldly. “You’re just so-so, it seems.”

“It’s too early to start talking!” Oman’s body moved, transforming into an illusory blur as he charged once more towards Linley.

Reisgem was bound, and he worriedly watched the two sides battle. Linley against Oman wasn’t so bad; by relying on his ‘Blackstone Space’, he was able to just barely hold on. But as for Chegwin against Reihom, the situation was much more dangerous. Reihom had already transformed into a ten meter giant.

“Rumble…” The mountains trembled and the earth shattered.

Linley and Oman’s battle was ﬁerce and vicious, but the amount of ruckus caused wasn’t that great. As for Chegwin and Reihom, those two were like a pair of bizarre beasts, one huge, one small. The two only used material attacks against each other. Each of Reihom’s punches and kicks carried mountain- splitting force, but Chegwin was even more terrifying; each punch and each kick was as sharp as a knife, leaving deep wounds on Reihom’s body.

“BANG!” Reihom’s giant body was smashed backwards, hard, ﬂying like a meteor. The side of the mountain shattered and stones were sent ﬂying everywhere.

Reihom’s chest was caved in. “The situation looks bad.” Reisgem said frantically. “Reihom specializes in material attacks, but this Chegwin is infamously hard to deal with. He has a defensive Sovereign artifact as well as a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Others aren’t able to injure him at all! Reihom is being treated by him as a punching bag. If this continues…”

Reihom had indeed becoming a punching bag.

Reihom himself had already sensed this. He wanted to move closer to Linley, hoping to enter the range of the Blackstone Space. “If I’m in the Amethyst Space, I’ll have a major speed advantage.” But the pace of the battle was being controlled by Chegwin, and Chegwin had already beaten him out of the cave to the outside wilderness, where the duel continued.

“Reihom is going to die if this continues!” Reisgem stared ﬁxedly at Magnus, his eyes red. He said savagely, “Magnus, you bastard! Let me tell you, if a single one of my friends die, I swear to you, I will never forgive you, never!!! Make Chegwin stop right now, RIGHT NOW!!!”

Magnus just laughed calmly.

“Reisgem, just rest for a while.” Magnus didn’t pay any attention to Reisgem’s threats at all.

Sovereigns and Deities were on completely different levels.

Unless a Sovereign had a truly necessary reason, there was no way a Sovereign would lower himself or herself to act against a Deity. This was a custom formed over countless years.

“Linley, hurry up and ﬂee. Think of a way to escape!” Reisgem was frantic, and he sent mentally, “Bebe and I are ﬁne. You need to hurry and run!”

But Linley didn’t respond. His battle against Oman only became even ﬁercer, and explosive sounds continued nonstop. The stones at the base of Ramhorn Mountain were all blasted into smithereens. Linley clearly was at a disadvantage, as his body was already covered with many wounds. Over the course of their battle, they had left the cave as well. “What is the Boss thinking? Why hasn’t he used his supreme technique?” Bebe didn’t understand. He hurriedly ﬂew out as well.

“Let’s go out to take a look.” Magnus also lifted up his long whip and carried Reisgem towards the outside.

In the wilderness, a few thousand meters apart, two savage battles were underway.

Unless the difference in power was too great, to kill an enemy would be quite hard.

For example, Paragons generally weren’t able to kill each other. For Reihom and Chegwin, Reihom’s transformation was simply too powerful, and although Chegwin was at an advantage and was able to kill him, it wasn’t something he could accomplish right away.

“This Linley’s fairly strong. He won’t be able to hold on for too long.” Magnus laughed while giving his evaluation. “That Reihom will most likely die before Linley does.” “Hmph.” Bebe gave a sideways glance at Magnus. In his heart, he still felt some hope for Linley. “The Boss will deﬁnitely have a way. Up till now, the Boss still has not used his supreme technique. At a critical moment, I’ll deﬁnitely have to help the Boss.” Bebe made his preparations to assist in blocking Magnus.

In the desolate wilderness.

A white-robed, black-haired, crimson-eyebrowed ﬁgure. It was Blueﬁre. Blueﬁre was currently moving at high speed, so fast it was as though he was teleporting. With each movement, he crossed multiple kilometers. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from one’s ﬁeld of vision.

“Magnus! Linley, you have to hold on.”

Blueﬁre’s movements were at an extremely high speed as he hastened towards Linley. Given Blueﬁre’s strength, he was able to perfectly control Sovereign power. Originally, Blueﬁre would often use his Sovereign power to investigate Linley’s situation, but after Linley made his breakthrough, he relaxed slightly.

He would just do an occasional investigation.

Just now, he saw that Linley was in grave danger, and he immediately hurried over. But…a battle between commanders was simply too fast. Would Blueﬁre make it in time?

Linley and Oman. One was completely wreathed in an aura of black light, while the other was covered with a blazing white aura. They wildly battled each other. Oman, exploding forth with full power, was clearly holding an advantage over Linley. “Haha, Linley, your power did indeed rise slightly. But compared to me, you are still quite a bit inferior!”

“Bang!”

The spiked mace clashed once more with Linley’s ‘Mirage’. “Swish!” “Swish!” The dozens of spikes on the mace suddenly shot outwards. Linley strove to dodge, as well as using his left arm and draconic tail to bat aside some of the spikes, preventing them from stabbing into his head. The power of these spikes wasn’t too great, but with so many spikes shooting over, Linley’s body was still riddled in bloody holes.

Linley’s entire body was covered in blood. Faced with this attack, each time Linley was struck by some.

Wounds were slowly accumulating. Linley’s body was covered with holes, and blood poured out nonstop.

Although his body was powerful, its repair speed was slow. Given that new injuries were constantly being inﬂicted, Linley wasn’t able to heal in time.

“A Sovereign was actually willing to forge a Sovereign weapon like this.” Linley cursed mentally. When they had ﬁrst started ﬁghting and when Oman had discovered that Linley had grown strong, he had begun to use this technique. However, the shooting of the spikes relied on brute Sovereign power as well as the fact that the spikes were part of a Sovereign weapon; they contained no profound mysteries.

Attacks that didn’t contain any profound mysteries, compared to each smash of the mace, were very weak. But although they were very weak, they were still enough to cause Linley’s body to be riddled with bloody holes.

“We’re at a sufﬁcient distance now.” Linley glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Magnus.

“Linley, your body’s defensive power is really quite strong. For most commanders, their bodies aren’t able to take my spikes when they shoot out, and they’ll die. However, with so many wounds on your body, even each block of yours is increasingly weaker. You won’t be able to hold.” Oman sent with a snicker.

A battle needed to be carried out by the body.

It would be a strange thing if a person’s body wasn’t weaker with hundreds of holes on it.

“Rumble…” Oman smashed down violently.

This strike with the spiked mace was seemingly quite powerful, and as it danced out, it caused multiple cracks in space to appear.

“This is the moment!” Linley once more struck out with his sword.

Oman’s face changed. He clearly saw 108 rays of black Destruction-type Sovereign power sweep towards him, instantly enveloping him. A powerful gravitational surge suddenly pressed down from all directions upon his body, and the powerful, compressive power caused him to feel quite miserable.

And right at this critical moment, Linley’s sword arrived!

“Ah!” Terror ﬂashed through Oman’s eyes. “No…” Under such heavy compression, his spiked mace wasn’t able to block in time.”Swish!” “Swish!” “Swish!”

A large quantity of spikes suddenly shot out from the mace. At the critical instant, they struck Mirage and caused it to move slightly off-center, slicing straight towards Oman’s ear.

“Clang!” And that momentary off-balance strike allowed the spiked mace to clash against Mirage.

“This is the moment!”

Linley’s gaze was sharp, and he retracted his sword as his body instantly went into the earth.

“I was nearly ﬁnished. This Linley actually held such a technique in reserve.” Oman was so terriﬁed, cold sweat matted his back. The sword had slashed past his ear, and he clearly felt it as it did so. But he quickly then recovered. “Linley…he ﬂed?” “Fled?”

Magnus had been watching the battle. The look on his face changed, and he paid Reisgem no more attention. Retracting his long silver whip, his body transformed into a ray of azure smoke as he instantly swept forward into the distance. Just as Reisgem realized what had happened, Magnus had already ﬂown into the distance, but Bebe was now barring his path.

“Don’t even think of catching my Boss.” Bebe howled angrily in his heart as he threw himself towards Magnus. He had been waiting for Magnus in Linley’s direction all this time.

“F*ck off!”

Magnus didn’t even dodge, knocking Bebe ﬂying with a single whip lash.

“Eh?” Magnus, who wanted to pursue at high speed, discovered that Bebe actually seized the long whip, clutching it tightly. Bebe was like a madman, staring at Magnus.

“Do you want to die?” Magnus’ face turned cold.

The whip trembled violently. No matter how tightly Bebe clutched it, he was still knocked ﬂying. Still, Bebe had managed to buy Linley some time.

“He ﬂed from my pursuit? He actually escaped the range of my divine sense.” Magnus said with a calm laugh. “It seems I’ll have to use Sovereign power.”

Chapter 48, The Death of Linley

Magnus was a Highgod Paragon. The range of his divine sense was quite wide, far surpassing that of ordinary commanders. But in terms of distance, it was still incomparable to that of a person using Sovereign’s Might! In particular, when a Highgod Paragon used Sovereign’s Might, the reach was astonishingly great.

“So there he is!” Magnus revealed a hint of a smile on his face.

“Swoosh!” Magnus drilled into the ground.

Bebe, who saw this from far away, clenched his ﬁsts tightly, his eyes red. He knelt on the desolate ground, powerless, as he said in a low voice, “Boss, Boss! You have to live! You swore that you would reach the pinnacle of training. Don’t die just like this!”

Reisgem, freed from his bonds, discovered that Reihom was already near the brink of death. “Reihom!” With a furious howl, Reisgem’s body completely arched backwards, and then he shot the violet spear in his hands forward with full power.

“Swish!” Space tore apart as the violet blur, covered with black light, shot towards Chegwin.

“Eh?” Chegwin had to relinquish giving Reihom a ﬁnal deathblow and instead hurriedly block the spear.

“Clang!”

Chegwin’s body was knocked backwards, but he was completely uninjured.

“Don’t even think of killing Reihom.” Reisgem hurried over, staring furiously at Chegwin. Chegwin just leisurely smirked at Reisgem. “Reisgem, you want to protect this Reihom? Yes, if you protect him, I really am not able to kill him. However, it’s pointless. You aren’t able to protect someone whom Mr. Magnus plans to kill.” Reisgem knew this all too well; once Magnus returned, Reihom would be ﬁnished.

“Reihom, hurry and run.” Reisgem sent mentally. “The farther, the better. It’d be best if you ﬂed across the river, to the other side of the Planar Battleﬁeld.”

“Alright.” Reihom didn’t mince words. His body immediately shrank, and he ﬂew at high speed towards the Stellar River.

“Hm?” Chegwin wanted to block him, but Reisgem stood in front of him.

“Hmph.” He won’t be able to escape.” Chegwin laughed calmly. Oman was by Chegwin’s side as well. Oman and Chegwin, together, feared neither Reisgem nor Bebe.

The Planar Battleﬁeld. Deep underground.

Linley was burrowing underground at high speed.

“I ran so far. He shouldn’t be able to catch me. However, using Sovereign power to sense is quite troublesome.” Linley said to himself. “Still…why are there two people using Sovereign power to track me?” Linley didn’t understand. Given that he himself was using Sovereign power, Linley

naturally could easily detect that others were using Sovereign power to search for him.

“Linley, you won’t be able to escape.” A voice rang out in Linley’s mind.

Linley’s face changed. “Magnus!”

Linley, who had used Sovereign’s Might, could sense Magnus searching for him.

“One of the auras of Sovereign power belongs to Magnus.

Then the other one?” Linley murmured to himself. But at this moment, another voice echoed in Linley’s mind. “Hurry up and turn left. Move in a straight line towards the left.” Linley was startled. This voice was actually Blueﬁre’s! Clearly, Blueﬁre had also used Sovereign power to send him a message through divine sense. Hearing Blueﬁre’s voice, the hope in Linley’s heart swelled.

“Don’t drop your guard. That Highgod Paragon is fairly close to you. I’m quite a distance away. Hurry and turn left!” Blueﬁre sent frantically.

Linley didn’t hesitate any further, immediately moving at high speed to the left.

As for Blueﬁre and Magnus, the two both began to chat through divine sense fueled by Sovereign power.

“Halt, Magnus. Why don’t you release Linley.” Blueﬁre said.

“Impossible!” Magnus didn’t hesitate at all, continuing to pursue after Linley at high speed. His speed was far faster than Linley’s. Blueﬁre could clearly sense that Magnus was constantly drawing closer to Linley, making Blueﬁre even more frantic. He worried that he wasn’t going to make it in time.

“If I want to kill someone, no one can stop me.” Magnus didn’t give Blueﬁre any face at all.

Highgod Paragons didn’t fear other Highgod Paragons. Although they were all powerful, they also weren’t able to do anything to each other. As for Sovereign’s…unless it was absolutely necessary, they wouldn’t get involved in the affairs of Highgods.

With but a thought, Linley made his Sovereign power become translucent, drifting outwards like spiritual energy. The scope of this spiritual energy was very great, and it easily detected the location of Magnus. “Not good. He’s actually just three kilometers away from me. Blueﬁre?” He expanded the scope to ﬁfty kilometers, but still didn’t discover Blueﬁre.

Linley was frantic. Although Linley was prepared to die, he wouldn’t so easily die.

“Two kilometers.” Linley could clearly sense how the other was continuously drawing closer at astonishing speed. “One kilometer!”

Five hundred meters. Given Magnus’ speed, even if he was trapped within the Blackstone Space, he would still be able to catch up to Linley. Linley gritted his teeth. “No other options. This is my only option!” Blueﬁre was clearly too far away and was still on the way. Linley could only grit his teeth and suddenly dive downwards.

“Oh, suicidal, aren’t we?” Magnus laughed calmly, his speed not slowing at all.

The deeper one went into the underground of the Planar Battleﬁeld, the more dangerous it was. At a certain death, spatial rifts would appear. These places were places which even Highgod Paragons were rather leery of. Once one broke through into a spatial rift which transported you into ‘chaotic’ space, one would be lost within. That was a terrifying thing indeed.

Linley making this arrangement was akin to diving into death in search of life!

“Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters…” Linley could clearly sense how Magnus was still drawing closer to him, even within the Blackstone Space.

“Whoosh!” Linley’s body continued to dive underground.

“Whoosh!” Suddenly, a spatial tear that was multiple meters long appeared, slicing past his body, causing a patch of earth and rock to disappearing.

“Here we are.” Linley understood that he was already at the borders, while at the same time, Linley also discovered through his divine sense that a hundred meters below, there were many spatial rifts. “If you are able to do so, keep going down.” A disdainful sound rang out.

Linley used his divine sense to scan. He clearly sensed that Magnus was just twenty meters above him. But suddenly, Linley became overjoyed. “Blueﬁre!” Blueﬁre was less than ten kilometers away. Earlier, when Linley ﬂed and Magnus pursued, they were moving in the same direction. Magnus naturally had to waste quite a bit of time while chasing him.

But as for Linley and Blueﬁre, they were moving in opposite directions towards each other.

“He’s quite fast.” Magnus noticed Blueﬁre’s astonishing speed as well. “He seems to be a level faster than me.” Magnus instantly understood that the newcomer possessed a terrifying level of power.

“Still, he won’t make it in time.”

Magnus gave the below Linley a cold look.

“Linley, there’s actually someone who appears to be a Paragon who has come to save you. However, he won’t make it. To show my respect for him, I will let you die under my most powerful attack.” Magnus’ voice rang out, while at the same time, a translucent globe of light appeared in his hand. This ﬁst-sized globe of light actually had a lotus petal hovering within it.

Linley didn’t dare go down any further. He just frantically ﬂew forward, wanting to pull away from Magnus.

“Stay your hand!” Blueﬁre thundered.

“Hmph.” Magnus just let out a cold sneer.

“Swish!”

The translucent globe of light shot out like lightning, tens of times faster than even Magnus himself. Linley was only able to move half a meter before that translucent globe of light entered Linley’s body, at a speed which made Linley completely unable to dodge. The translucent globe of light directly entered Linley’s mind.

“Break!” Linley, through his Sovereign power, wildly attacked that translucent globe of light.

This translucent globe of light violently expanded, encompassing the entirety of Linley’s damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. And then, like pushing through rotting garbage, it broke through the bandage, and the lotus petal charged directly into Linley’s sea of consciousness.

It was like a meteor smashing into water.

Linley’s spiritual energy was completely unable to block it.

This translucent lotus petal slowly swiveled, emitting blinding light, like a small sun illuminating Linley’s sea of consciousness. It rapidly shot towards Linley’s soul, as well as the souls of Linley’s three divine clones! Linley frantically used his Sovereign power to clash against it, but it was like an egg smashing into a stone; he wasn’t able to do anything to it at all.

The swiveling translucent lotus petal emanated thousands of rays of light, which stretched out to the four souls in Linley’s body!

“Father. Boss Yale. Second Bro George…and Delia, your elder brother. They will all return. I didn’t disappoint you!” This was Linley’s ﬁnal thought, and at this moment, the corner of Linley’s lips curved upwards slightly, revealing a hint of a smile. And then, his consciousness was completely exterminated.

Highgod Paragons…even a Highgod Paragon of wind like Bayer who used a soul attack was able to make Linley dazed and unable to respond. When a Highgod Paragon of Fate like Magnus made his move using Sovereign power to execute his supreme attack?

If Linley was able to resist an attack such as this, then Highgod Paragons really wouldn’t live to their reputations.

“You thought you’d go deep underground and ﬁnd life from death?” Magnus glanced into the distance, where Linley’s body lay there in the earth, with no hint of life at all as Sovereign power leaked from him. “This sort of method is effective against experts who specialize in material attacks, but useless against experts who specialize in soul attacks.”

Soul attacks could be executed at long range.

Deep in the Planar Battleﬁeld, there would be no place to run!

“Eh?” Magnus suddenly turned to stare in the distance.

“Crackle…” The surrounding earth was instantly burned into nothingness, and Linley’s body lifted into the air. A white- robed ﬁgure descended from the skies. Upon arriving by Linley’s body, he stretched his hand out, gently resting it on Linley. “Eh?” Blueﬁre’s forehead creased slightly.

“Yet another Paragon has appeared in the universe?” Magnus lifted an eyebrow, looking towards Blueﬁre.

Blueﬁre just let out a cold snort. His body rose upwards, and the earth that blocked him all transformed into nothingness. “Interesting.” Magnus rose into the skies as well.

Reisgem and Bebe both cared about Linley; they, too, hurried towards this direction. Oman and Chegwin also hurried over. The four of them all used Sovereign power; naturally, they discovered Blueﬁre’s presence.

“Blueﬁre, Blueﬁre.” Bebe held a hint of hope in his heart.

But moments later, when Linley suffered the soul attack, Bebe clearly sensed that Linley’s soul began to weaken at an astonishing speed. The souls of Highgods were very powerful. Bebe could sense it like a sun. But now, Linley’s soul aura was growing weaker and weaker, until ﬁnally… It could no longer be sensed!

Bebe’s tears silently began to drip down.

His Boss…had died?

Died?

“Aaaaaaaaah!” Bebe howled in utter misery, but just as he started howling, the sound cut off.

The nearby Reisgem, seeing this, knew that the situation was bad. In addition, he too reached out with his Sovereign power divine sense, only to ﬁnd that there was no hint of life within Linley at all.

“Dead?” Reisgem was stunned. “Im…impossible!” Soon, Reisgem and Bebe saw in the distance a white-robed ﬁgure. As for Linley, his body lay there on the ground, without any hint of life. His Sovereign power had completely dissipated as well. As for Magnus, he stood there calmly.

“Magnus!” Bebe’s eyes were crimson, and his tears streaked downwards. He bellowed, “Remember me, I will deﬁnitely kill you, deﬁnitely!!!”

“I’ll wait for you.” Magnus gave a calm laugh.

Kill a Paragon? If a Paragon wanted to ﬂee, even a Sovereign wouldn’t dare say claim complete conﬁdence in being able to kill the Paragon.

“Let’s go.” Magnus said calmly.

Oman and Chegwin nodded slightly. Magnus immediately led Oman and Chegwin to leave. Suddenly, Magnus turned to look towards Blueﬁre. “What’s your name?” “You aren’t worthy of learning it.” Blueﬁre said calmly.

Magnus raised an eyebrow, gave a cold snort, then turned and led Oman and Chegwin away.

On the desolate ground, Linley just lay there, not a hint of life coming from his body. Blueﬁre stood to one side, while Reisgem and Bebe ﬂew over. Reisgem said in disbelief, “Impossible. He couldn’t have died, just like that. He has the Soulstone my mother gave him. How could he have died, just like that?”

Bebe, who was moving towards Linley, suddenly sensed something. “Eh? The Boss’ soul?”

At a closer distance to Linley, Bebe could faintly detect the existence of Linley’s soul. Only, Linley’s aura was so weak as to be at the absolute lowest limit. Even Bebe, whose soul was linked to his, had to draw near in order to just barely detect it.

“The Boss is alive!” Bebe called out in delight.

“I already scanned him.” Blueﬁre shook his head and sighed. “Linley is indeed not yet dead, but, his soul is like a tiny ﬂame ﬂickering in the cold wind, about to go out at any point. And that’s only because he has this ‘Soulstone’ which is constantly providing him with energy, giving him a chance at life.

Otherwise, he would have died long ago.”

Chapter 49, The Line Between Life and Death

“The Soulstone is providing a hint of life?” Bebe hurriedly asked.

Blueﬁre nodded slightly. “This isn’t a big secret. According to legend, the Redbud Sovereign was born from the Amethyst Mountains themselves.” As he spoke, Blueﬁre looked towards Reisgem.

Reisgem didn’t mind either. He nodded. “Right. This is the truth. The amethysts of the Amethyst Mountains all contain spiritual energy. The Amethyst Godbeasts which are born from the Amethyst Mountains naturally contain powerful souls. And Amethyst Godbeasts are able to give birth to a puriﬁed form of energy…Soulstones! The process of producing a Soulstone is a very arduous one, and so it is an important treasure of us Amethyst Godbeasts. For example, although I myself have produced a Soulstone, I use it to protect my life; of course I’m not willing to give it to others.”

“My mother is a Sovereign. With Sovereign power surrounding her and with the passage of countless years, she’s able to hand out one or two Soulstones.” Reisgem sighed. “This Soulstone is an absolute treasure for protecting the soul. Perhaps it isn’t able to help in protecting against the attack of a Sovereign, but…with a Soulstone, there shouldn’t be any reason to fear the soul attacks of Highgods.”

Reisgem looked towards Linley as he spoke.

Bebe understood as well.

Amethyst Godbeasts were born from the essence of the Amethyst Mountains themselves. As for the Soulstone, it was the energy essence of the Amethyst Mountains. A single Soulstone was trillions of times more valuable than an amethyst. One could imagine how powerful it was.

“But my Boss…?” Bebe said frantically.

“Linley, he…” Reisgem said helplessly. “Alas, that Magnus is a Paragon of Fate, and his soul is very powerful. He also used Fate-type Sovereign power to execute that attack. The strength of that attack has already exceeded that of ordinary Deities! Even the Soulstone…” Reisgem was rather uncertain as well.

He had bragged so much about how powerful the Soulstone was, but the enemy was too powerful this time.

“This time, Linley’s situation is dire.” Blueﬁre said solemnly. “Magnus’ soul attack has already penetrated into all four souls of Linley’s body. The energy of the Soulstone is constantly reinforcing Linley, making it so that his souls aren’t completely destroyed. This situation is too dangerous, too dangerous.”

Unconscious and fainted.

Bebe had memories of both Delia and Olivier experiencing this.

“Delia and Olivier encountered this in the past as well. They both came back to life.” Bebe said hurriedly. “And Olivier, when he fainted, his soul mutated.” Blueﬁre sighed and shook his head. “I know about Delia. That expert was just an expert of Fate who wasn’t even at the commander level. But the one who attacked Linley was Magnus! I can put it to you like this…amongst Highgods, there is not a single person who is superior to Magnus. At best, they are on par with him.”

“As the saying goes, hurting is easy, healing is hard. There is no one who can save someone who Magnus attacked.” Blueﬁre shook his head.

“Sovereigns?” Bebe said hurriedly.

“Useless.” Resigem shook his head. “Actually, Sovereigns are more powerful than Highgods, primarily because their Will is formidable, which makes them powerful and undefeatable. But in terms of profound mysteries, they aren’t necessarily comparable to Paragons.”

Reisgem’s mother was a Sovereign, so Reisgem knew this very well. The Sovereigns also trained in the profound mysteries of the Laws.

The process of becoming a Sovereign had very little to do with the profound mysteries. Of the 77 Sovereigns, only a very small number of them had been able to become Paragons! However, the power of Sovereigns still vastly outstripped that of Highgod Paragons. The reason was that one was a ‘Sovereign’ while the other was a ‘Highgod’.

They were simply on different levels.

The power of a Sovereign was simply too great. This was an authority which the universe bestowed upon them that couldn’t be bridged.

“In addition, Magnus is a Paragon; his attacks are also infused with his own special ‘power’, the power of a Paragon’s Will. Although it isn’t as powerful as that of a Sovereign, when it comes to healing, it’s not a matter of a power competition.” Reisgem said helplessly. “To save a soul is a very meticulous task. In addition, Magnus himself is a Paragon…there’s no one who can save Linley.” Bebe was completely frantic.

“Indeed, we cannot save him.”

Blueﬁre shook his head. “Unless an Overgod intervenes. But Overgods are the personiﬁcations of the Edicts. How could they intervene to save someone? That’s completely impossible.”

Bebe was rather helpless.

“But that Olivier, he was fainted for so long. He still came back to life.” Bebe said hurriedly. “And his soul mutated.”

“Indeed, when one is in this sort of unconscious state, it’s more common for soul mutations to occur.” Blueﬁre couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “But Bebe, do you know…that the chances of dying in the unconscious state is even higher!”

Bebe was terriﬁed.

“Then why will some people have their souls mutated when they are unconscious?” Bebe asked hurriedly.

“Even I don’t understand the true reason.” Blueﬁre shook his head. “However, there is one thing. If that Olivier had only trained in darkness and light when he fainted, once he fainted…when he successfully underwent his soul mutation, he ended up fusing these two types of energy. But if his soul mutation failed, he would have died.”

“Very few people can become Soul Mutates.” Blueﬁre sighed. “People who have two divine clones use two types of divine power, and can become Soul Mutates. There are some who survive, but the chances of surviving are still terrifyingly low! Only a single person in the endless history of the entire Infernal Realm has survived a soul mutation with three divine clones.”

Blueﬁre looked at Bebe. “Think about it. How many people does the Infernal Realm have? And how long has it existed for? Over the course of the countless ages, the Infernal Realm has only produced a single person who succeeded in a soul mutation with three clones. How high are the chances of death?”

Bebe’s body was shaking.

“Then what about four divine clones?” Bebe was now truly frightened, because Linley had four divine clones. Linley was able to use four types of divine energy.

“Throughout the countless years of the universe, throughout the countless planes, there hasn’t been a single person who held four divine clones who successfully underwent a soul mutation.” Blueﬁre’s expression was solemn. “The chance of success…is zero!”

Bebe’s face instantly turned completely white.

“But just because a person is unconscious doesn’t mean they will undergo a soul mutation.” Reisgem hurriedly consoled him. “Like you said, that Delia fainted as well, but came back to life without undergoing a soul mutation, right?” “That’s because Delia only has a single divine clone.” Blueﬁre said somberly. “But of course, it’s also possible that someone with divine clones who faints won’t necessarily undergo a soul mutation. Only a very small number do.”

Reisgem wasn’t able to say anything else. All he could do was laugh bitterly.

Linley’s original body had suffered the attack, along with his three major divine clones. Of the four divine clones, the only lucky ‘survivor’ was the divine ﬁre clone back in the Yulan Plane. If the original body and the three clones were all ﬁnished…Bebe understood that it would be virtually impossible for Linley to once more reach the pinnacle of power. Bebe understood very well that in the bottom of Linley’s heart, he still desired to reach the pinnacle.

This was Linley’s most primal desire.

Actually, it was also the desire of Doehring Cowart. When Doehring Cowart had provided Linley with guidance, he had also entrusted his own hopes and desire to Linley. He hoped that Linley would one day reach the pinnacle of power. What Doehring Cowart had hoped, back then, was that one day, Linley would reach the same level as the War God and as the High Priest. But now, Linley had vastly surpassed them.

Still, the desire to pursue perfection had been engraved into Linley’s bones.

“Then…then what should we do?” Bebe was panicked.

“There’s nothing we can do.” Blueﬁre shook his head. “The supreme technique of a Paragon. No one can save someone hit by it. We’ll just have to wait and see what Linley can do. If Linley’s soul doesn’t undergo a soul mutation, there’s still a chance of survival. But…as soon as Linley’s soul begins to change, then…it can be said that he is dead for sure.”

Blueﬁre sighed. For someone who had four divine clones to undergo a soul mutation…the chances of success were zero!

“Others might not succeed, but that isn’t necessarily true for my Boss.” Bebe said hurriedly.

Blueﬁre shook his head slightly. “Let’s ﬁnd a place to rest. As to whether or not Linley’s soul will mutate successfully or fail, that’s up to fate.”

The Yulan Plane.

Dragonblood Castle.

“Linley, what is it?” Delia looked at a red-robed Linley.

The ﬁre Linley had a terrible look on his face. Shaking his head, he said, “My original body and my three major divine clones have already lost their consciousness.” His soul was divided into ﬁve parts, each of which could sense the other. But right now, his divine ﬁre clone could no longer sense the consciousness of his original body and his other divine clones. The situation was very dire.

“What!” Delia’s face changed.

“Just now, even I thought that my original body and three divine clones had died, but the strange thing was, after suffering that attack from Magnus, they didn’t die. The situation is still terrible, though. Those four souls are very weak; they could be extinguished at any moment.” The ﬁre ‘Linley’ had a solemn look on his face. His original body and his three major divine clones had lost consciousness. Linley naturally didn’t know that this was because the Soulstone was providing him with a hint of life.

Delia’s face was ashen. She was extremely worried.

“Linley, you and your three divine clones won’t die, right?” Delia knew very well that if that happened, that represented that Linley’s future was destroyed. The surviving divine ﬁre clone was just a weakling. Delia understood…that Linley had a heart which wanted to pursue personal strength. He wouldn’t be willing to be a weakling.”

“I don’t know.”

The ﬁre Linley closed his eyes and said, “Whether it is life, or death…”

The Planar Battleﬁeld was as silent as ever, with the occasional sounds of battle peppering it.

Within a desolate mountain.

Reihom had been contacted by Reisgem through Sovereign power long ago and had returned. Blueﬁre, Bebe, Reihom, and Reisgem were all together in the living room, while Linley was in a nearby room, lying on a bed quietly, not a hint of life in his body. “It has been seven full days. Linley hasn’t moved at all.” Reisgem said, frowning.

“Mr. Leylin, take another look.” Bebe said hurriedly.

Of the four, only Blueﬁre dared to go investigate Linley’s soul; after all, Linley’s soul was currently extremely weak, weaker than even an ordinary person’s soul, so weak that if someone was not careful, it was possible that Linley’s soul would be completely erased.

“I’ll take a look.”

Blueﬁre stepped into the room.

“I hope the Boss can improve. I hope the Boss can improve.” Bebe said repeatedly.

Moments later, Blueﬁre stepped out, his forehead furrowed. “What is it?” Bebe hurriedly asked.

Blueﬁre shook his head slightly. “The Fate-type Sovereign power which has ﬂooded Linley’s soul has weakened greatly already. But similarly, that Soulstone has shrunk dramatically as well.” The Soulstone was formed from the distilled spiritual essence of the Redbud Sovereign. The more of its energy was used up, the smaller it would naturally become.

Once its energy was used up, the Soulstone would vanish.

“The Soulstone has shrunk dramatically?” Bebe lowered his head, chewing on his lips, not knowing what to think.

The Fate-type Sovereign power which permeated Linley’s soul was disappearing, but the Soulstone was shrinking as well.

The ﬁfteenth day of Linley’s coma. Within the cave.

“The Fate-type Sovereign power is almost gone.” Blueﬁre had a rare hint of a smile on his face. “But there’s still a bit of the Soulstone left. It will deﬁnitely be able to persevere to the very end. I expect that the Sovereign power of Magnus’ soul attack will dissipate today.”

Bebe’s face had a rare, surprised smile on it.

“However, even after the Fate-type Sovereign power dissipates, it is hard to say if Linley will wake up or not. With the soul having lost consciousness, it is hard to say how long this sort of situation will last.” Blueﬁre shook his head.

Bebe nodded slightly.

“Everyone, let’s be happy. At least there’s hope for Linley to wake up.” Reisgem laughed merrily. “Right. There’s a hint of hope.” Bebe nodded heavily.

Just as Reisgem and Bebe were waiting expectantly, suddenly, everyone sensed a hint of a ripple from Linley’s room. “Can it be that the Boss is waking up?” Bebe was delighted.

“What’s going on?” Blueﬁre was the ﬁrst to charge into the room.

Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom followed him in. Within the room, Linley himself was lying there calmly, not a hint of life coming from his body.

But his body was now covered with all sorts of elemental essences. Earthen yellow earth essences, blazing red ﬁre essences, faint green wind essences, azure-green water essences…a large amount of elemental essences of these four types were being attracted by Linley’s body, and they swirled around him.

Although Bebe didn’t know whether or not Olivier’s body had attracted large amounts of two types of elemental essences when he was unconscious, Bebe knew one thing…Linley was most likely undergoing a soul mutation.

“A soul mutation?” Blueﬁre had never seen a soul mutation either, but seeing this, he had a guess.

Bebe stared at the unconscious Linley, tears welling in his eyes.

Undergoing a soul mutation with four divine clones? To date, not a single person had ever succeeded.

Chapter 50, A Terrifying Tenacity

Within the quiet stone room, Linley lay there silently, four types of elemental essences lovingly swirling around his body. In the quiet stone room, aside from Linley, only Bebe was present. As for Blueﬁre, Reisgem, and Reihom, they didn’t disturb Bebe. They knew very well how deep Linley and Bebe’s affections for each other were.

Bebe quietly stood by Linley’s side, his little face covered in tearstains.

“Boss.” Bebe forced out a smile. “Two thousand years. In my heart, the person I’ve always admired the most was you. Honest! When we were young, I always slept or fooled around, but, you, Boss, always worked hard to train, never relaxing at all. I know that part of this had to do with your father, and also with Grandpa Doehring, but you never gave up, right?”

“In addition, on our journey together, we’ve met with many seemingly intractable problems. That King of Fenlai was powerful, right? You were just a youth, but you ended up killing that King, right?” “Even the then-seemingly all-powerful Radiant Church was destroyed by you. You pulled it out by the root and destroyed it, right?”

“In the Necropolis of the Gods, when we encountered so many difﬁculties, and even seemingly fatal dangers, we made it all the way through, right?”

“We adventured together through the Infernal Realm, and we never fell down. We even fought our way through the Planar Battleﬁeld, this most terrifyingly dangerous of places! And haven’t we acquired four commander badges?”

Bebe gnawed his lips, staring at the ‘slumbering’ Linley. “Boss, you won’t fall down now! It’s just a soul mutation, right? After overcoming so many challenges, you aren’t going to fall down on me now, right? I trust, Boss, that you will deﬁnitely succeed, because…you are my Boss. The Boss that I trust and admire the most.” As Bebe spoke, his tears began to well up in his eyes once more. He forced himself to not let them fall.

The more conﬁdent his words were, the more panicked he felt.

In truth, Bebe had no conﬁdence whatsoever! This was because Linley had four major divine clones. His soul mutation would thus be impacted by four types of elemental essences. This sort of situation was very terrifying. If he was to succeed…Linley would be, in the course of countless years and countless planes, the one and only person to have undergone a soul mutation with four clones.

But would he be able to endure?

Not a single person had done so in all of history!

“Boss, you’ll deﬁnitely succeed. Deﬁnitely.” Bebe murmured in his heart. Everyone who knew Linley’s situation had no conﬁdence in Linley being able to succeed. They didn’t even see Linley as having a 10% chance. Even Reisgem, Blueﬁre, and the others, upon learning that Linley was undergoing a soul mutation, felt their hearts sank. All they could do was to pray to the heavens and hope that Linley would struggle through.

The Yulan Plane. The Forest of Darkness. The metallic castle.

Two people were seated opposite from each other, one dressed in a long black robe, the other in a long white robe. One had drooping whiskers and small eyes; Beirut. The other had crimson eyebrows; Blueﬁre! The looks on the faces of both Beirut and Blueﬁre weren’t too pleased right now.

“What is the situation? Is there a chance of improvement?” Beirut said, frowning.

“The situation is very dire.” Blueﬁre let out a long sigh. “I really don’t have much faith in a soul mutation. If Linley is able to succeed, then it will be an unexpected surprise. But if he fails…Linley will never be able to reach the peak again.” Beirut shook his head and sighed. “I was too impatient to reach my goals.”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Blueﬁre shook his head. “After my original body entered the Planar Battleﬁeld, I originally stayed quite close to Linley, but after Linley made his breakthrough, I relaxed. Who would have imagined that Magnus would suddenly appear. Alas. It was my mistake. I didn’t get there in time to save him.”

A hint of a bitter smile was on Beirut’s face. “It was so hard to encounter an appropriate person. If Bebe were to learn the truth, he would probably hate me!”

“This isn’t your fault either. Who would have known this would be the case?” Blueﬁre shook his head.

“If my plans succeeded, Linley and Bebe would have been grateful to me. But given the current situation…” Beirut shook his head. “Once Linley’s original body and his three clones perish, then he will have lost his future potential. My plans would have completely failed as well. I will have no options but to ﬁnd another suitable candidate.”

Blueﬁre sat there, a hint of unwillingness in his eyes.

“Beirut, don’t be in a rush to render your verdict.” Blueﬁre frowned. “The results aren’t out yet. Linley might be able to survive this.”

“If he really does survive it and successfully completes his soul mutation, then this will be a major cause for celebration.” Beirut lifted an eyebrow. “But if Linley truly becomes a Soul Mutate, then I’ll have to change my plans.”

“Are you saying…?” Blueﬁre was startled.

Beirut nodded slightly. “Right!”

“This…is this doable?” Blueﬁre was stunned. “It seems as though in the countless years of the existence of the universe, no one has ever succeeded.”

“Why isn’t it doable!” Beirut’s eyes ﬂashed with a crafty light. “To be honest, if Linley were to succeed in his soul mutation, then my plans will have a high chance for success. And once we succeed…I feel excited just thinking about it. If the experiment is a failure, it won’t impact Linley much, nor will it impact me much, but if it is successful…”

Blueﬁre’s eyes revealed an eager light as well.

“But of course, we’re just talking right now. We’re just daydreaming.” Beirut laughed bitterly. “It’s still far too early. It’ll be good if Linley even manages to survive this current situation.”

“Right. Let’s see if he can survive this!” Blueﬁre nodded as well. “Success means Linley’s future prospects are limitless! Failure…you and I will have no choice but to ensure that Linley’s future life will be a peaceful one. He’ll never be able to rise to the top again, at the level of being able to causes tempests and waves in the world.” “Nobody can help him now.” Beirut nodded slightly. “He will have to rely on himself!”

“It’s too late for regrets. We have to face reality!” Beirut’s gaze was hard and calm. “If he succeeds, his potential will be limitless. If he fails…that will not be our fault.”

Time ﬂowed on. The Planar Battleﬁeld was very quiet, with a few rare major battles. Almost everyone was awaiting the ﬁnal battle’s arrival.

The thirty third day of Linley’s coma Reisgem and the others were gathered within the cave.

Blueﬁre walked out from Linley’s stone room. Reisgem, Reihom, and Bebe hurriedly went to welcome him. “What is it, Mr. Blueﬁre?” Bebe was the ﬁrst to ask. Blueﬁre glanced at them, then shook his head and said, “Although the Fate-type Sovereign power of Magnus’ attack is gone, it used up a large amount of the energy of the Soulstone. Today, the Soulstone’s energy was completely used up!” “Are you saying…?” Bebe was shocked.

“From today onwards, no outside force can help Linley.” Blueﬁre sighed. “In the past, with the assistance of the Soulstone, he was able to hold on. But now that the Soulstone is unable to help him…he will have no one but himself to rely on against the soul mutation.”

“But the Boss’ soul is so weak. Will he be able to hold?” Bebe was so worried, he was about to cry.

Blueﬁre, Reisgem, and Reihom were all silent.

Not long ago, when Blueﬁre had investigated Linley’s soul, he discovered that during the soul mutation, Linley’s soul was like a tiny ﬂame that encountered a mighty wind time and time again. Fortunately, the black stone’s energy constantly replenished him, restoring energy to Linley’s soul, allowing him time and time again to hold fast against the clashing powers of the soul mutation process. “Who knows?” Blueﬁre shook his head.

The atmosphere within the cave seemed so cold, so gloomy…

The thirty ﬁfth day of Linley’s coma.

Blueﬁre emerged from the stone room. He shook his head somewhat disbelievingly. “I didn’t dare believe it. Linley’s soul, even without the assistance of the Soulstone, has been able to endure for three full days…but it seems as though the process is still quite early. Who knows how long the soul mutation process will take!”

Bebe, however, knew.

Originally, when Olivier had undergone the soul mutation process, he had been unconscious for multiple months. And Olivier had only two types of energy; there was no way his soul mutation could be compared to Linley’s. A soul mutation involving three types of divine clones was far more complicated than Olivier’s. As for a soul mutation involving four divine clones… It probably wouldn’t end in just a matter of a few short months.

Blueﬁre and Bebe, along with Beirut, Delia, and the others in the Yulan continent, had been prepared all along, but the amount of time Linley spent in this coma surpassed their expectations.

Olivier had succeeded within a few months, but Linley would probably need several years.

Several years?

Linley remained in this coma…and quite quickly, more than ten years passed.

The eighteenth year of Linley’s coma. Within the cave in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Blueﬁre inspected Linley once every seven days now. Linley’s long coma had caused Reisgem and Reihom to no longer be as constantly worried about Linley as they had been; they were able to calm their minds and train and rest. As for Bebe, he paid attention to Linley’s situation every day..

“The situation is not good. Over the past eighteen years, Linley’s soul has been weakening slightly this entire time. Although he’s been able to resist this entire time, the weakening process has never slowed.” Blueﬁre said with a frown. “Although Linley’s soul is incredibly tenacious, and has never given up and has continued to endure…his soul is now too weak. I have the feeling that if this continues, he won’t be able to last for more than three more days.”

Bebe’s face instantly turned ashen.

“Three days. Just three days. Either the situation will improve, or he will die if it does not. Let’s see how things are these next three days.” Blueﬁre said, shaking his head. Blueﬁre had the feeling that eighteen years ago, if Linley’s weak soul could be described as an ‘tiny ﬂame’, then now, it was barely an ember.

“He deﬁnitely will be ﬁne. Deﬁnitely.” Bebe said repeatedly.

These three days were quite hard for Bebe to endure. Originally, Blueﬁre thought that Linley would only be able to resist for three more days, but who would have imagined…that despite his soul having been weakened exceedingly, he was able to hold for eighteen days. Blueﬁre, too, felt that this was inconceivable.

On the eighteenth day.

“Bebe, come quickly, quickly.” Blueﬁre called out.

Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom immediately entered Linley’s stone room. Bebe, terriﬁed and nervous, looked at Blueﬁre. “What is it? What’s going on with my Boss?” Blueﬁre turned his head, staring at Bebe and Reisgem in disbelief. “Inconceivable. Inconceivable! Linley’s soul is now beginning to strengthen. To strengthen! It is like an infant which is growing up. It is strengthening at a speed that I can palpably sense! It is growing!”

Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom had looks of amazement in their eyes.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!” Bebe jumped up violently, so high that his head smashed into the stone roof, so hard that several rocks were knocked loose. Bebe hurriedly stretched his hand out, moving it in a blur and preventing the stones from falling.

“Wonderful, wonderful!” Bebe was utterly overjoyed.

The Yulan continent. Dragonblood Castle.

Delia and Sasha were together. “Mother, is Father alright?” Sasha said, rather worried. “It is quite rare for Father to go into solitary meditation. Why is it that this time after he went into solitary meditation, he didn’t come out?”

“He’s ﬁne.” Delia forced out a smile.

Linley’s situation was something he and Delia had not told their children. They didn’t want their children to worry.

“Huh?” Delia suddenly saw a ﬁgure emerge from the courtyard gate and walk towards them. It was the ﬁre-type ‘Linley’.

“Father.” Sasha said hurriedly.

The ﬁre ‘Linley’ smiled and nodded, and Delia looked expectantly towards Linley. “Are you done?” The nearby Sasha, hearing this, was puzzled and confused. “I can sense…that things are improving.” The ﬁre ‘Linley’ had a rare smile on his face. Divine clones could sense each other’s souls. Although the other four souls had lost consciousness, Linley was still able to sense that they still existed. Over the past eighteen years, they had constantly weakened, weakened to the point where even the ﬁre-type soul was almost unable to sense them. But today, however, the four souls were growing stronger.

Linley’s souls had been weakening for eighteen years, and were extremely fragile. Now that they began to strengthen, however, the strengthening speed was far greater than the previous weakening speed. They rapidly gained in strength.

The Planar Battleﬁeld. The cave estate. Linley’s thirty fourth year in a coma.

“Mr. Leylin, why hasn’t my Boss woken up yet?” Bebe was rather impatient now. Bebe was now no longer too worried, because he could clearly sense how powerful Linley’s soul had become. It was far greater than Linley’s soul had been prior to his injury. If Linley’s soul, prior to his injury, could be described as a lake of water, his soul now was a fathomlessly deep ocean.

His soul was so powerful, but Linley still didn’t wake up.

“Don’t be impatient!” Blueﬁre laughed. “He will deﬁnitely wake up.” Actually, Blueﬁre had a hint of worry in his heart as well. Linley’s soul was already so terrifyingly great; would it actually suddenly collapse at a critical moment? No one knew what a soul mutation with four divine clones would be like.

That same point in time, within the stone room.

Outside the room, Blueﬁre and the others were chatting. Within the stone room, Linley lay there quietly by himself. He had already quietly lain there for thirty four years, and his body no longer had elemental essences surrounding it.

Suddenly…

Linley’s closed eyes… Opened!

Chapter 51, Metamorphosis – Breaking Through the Cocoon, Becoming a Butterﬂy!

At this moment, Linley’s original body and his three divine clones all regained their consciousness. Linley’s ﬁrst thought was: “What happened? I’m not dead?” He had no awareness of what had happened in the past thirty four long years. Actually, to Linley’s original body and three divine clones, it was as though just a second or two passed.”

But in the next instant, when Linley communicated with his divine ﬁre clone, he understood that he had already been in a coma for thirty four years.

“Where am I?” Linley looked at his surroundings, then sat up.

When he sat up, Linley sensed that he had changed.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Linley could clearly sense the spatial ripples around him, and he could clearly visualize Blueﬁre, Reihom, Reisgem, and Bebe, who were seated in the nearby room. This was a sort of feeling of control, a feeling that made Linley feel as though he had control over his own destiny.

He felt like an emperor. It was a feeling of absolute control.

“Linley!”

“Boss!”

A series of overjoyed cries rang out. The movement Linley made when he sat up caused the four people outside to notice him as well. These four simultaneously entered the stone room. Linley looked at the four in front of him. Reisgem, Reihom, and Blueﬁre were all overjoyed, while Bebe was so excited that tears were gathering in his eyes.

“Boss.” Bebe threw himself right into Linley’s arms. “Haha, Bebe, stop crying. You are like a kid.” Linley rose to his feet, leaving the stone bed and standing up. He chuckled.

Bebe laughed through his tears, then wiped his nose and snorted. “Boss, it’s all your fault. You’ve been in a coma for thirty four years. You tell me, isn’t that terrifying?”

“How did I end up in a coma for thirty four years?” Linley didn’t understand.

The nearby Blueﬁre laughed, “Linley, thirty four years ago, you were struck by a full force attack from Magnus, but luckily, the Soulstone helped you stay alive. But who would have imagined that during the coma period, your soul began to mutate. The energy of the Soulstone was quickly used up. We were all worried that you wouldn’t be able to hold on, but you managed to survive.”

“A Soul Mutate?!” Linley was badly startled. “Me?!”

“Right. You. Why don’t you give it a test and see what you can ﬁnd?” Blueﬁre laughed while urging him. “Some changes can’t be seen from the surface. Only you yourself can sense them.”

“Right, Boss. Give it a try. Let’s see how your soul has become.” Bebe said, excited. “You are the very ﬁrst person with four divine clones who underwent a soul mutation.”

“What is it like, for someone with four divine clones to become a Soul Mutate?” Reisgem’s eyes were burning with curiosity as he looked at Linley.

“I have four divine clones, but was able to undergo a soul mutation?”

Linley himself could barely believe it, but he still shut his eyes, beginning a careful investigation of his current soul!

Within his sea of consciousness. Above the enormous sea of consciousness ﬂoated an illusory, rainbow-like light. His spiritual energy was like an ocean of water, with waves of it rolling about. This spiritual energy seemed translucent and dreamlike, almost like glass. The most unique thing was that sword-shaped soul!

The sword-shaped soul hovered above the sea of consciousness.

But the current sword-shaped soul had become translucent. Only, a layer of gray energy covered that sword-shaped soul. It looked rather ordinary, and not as eye-catching as the original, rainbow-colored sword-shaped soul.

“What a powerful, unique sensation.” Linley murmured silently to himself.

Others, even Blueﬁre, who ventured into Linley’s soul, wouldn’t discover anything unique about Linley’s current soul. Only Linley himself could sense it. “The feeling of control. It is quite unique.” Linley said to himself.

And then, Linley stopped thinking about it as he began to inspect other things carefully.

“Ah, my soul-protecting Sovereign artifact!” Linley found, to his astonishment, that the hole in the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact was currently being repaired at an astonishing speed, thousands of times faster than in the past when he ﬁrst became a Highgod. And this repairing process was a true ‘repair’ of the Sovereign artifact!

In the past, what he was doing was essentially putting a bandage over it, not truly reparing it.

But now, the hole of the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact was slowly shrinking.

When the day came for the hole to vanish, the soul- protecting Sovereign artifact would be completely restored.

“How…how can this be?” Linley didn’t dare believe it.

The speed at which a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact could be repaired was correlated to the strength of one’s soul and one’s spiritual energy. Linley could sense how powerful his soul had become, but for it to be able to repair the soul- protecting Sovereign artifact at such an astonishing rate? He still felt this was inconceivable. “Given this speed, most likely in just a few years, it will be completely repaired.”

Linliey discovered that the other souls of his other three clones had also transformed.

“Unfortunately, my divine ﬁre clone wasn’t here to transform as well. Still, the results will be the same; in the future, when the divine ﬁre clone merges with my main body and joins with the other four souls, they will exchange energy with each other and it will slowly transform as well.” Linley understood that it was like his original body’s soul; actually, his original body’s soul was just the soul of a Saint. But it was with together his other souls. His main soul and the souls of the other divine clones were a part of a whole, and over a long period of time, the various souls replenished each other, causing his original body’s soul to naturally grow powerful as well. After all, they were all one to begin with.

“A Soul Mutate? Doesn’t that mean that I can fuse four types of divine power?” Linley couldn’t help but begin to test it. He ﬁrst used three types of Highgod power; earth, wind, and water.

Within Linley’s body, three surges of divine power began to swirl around like watery dragons. Once they touched each other, it was as though they were one family; there wasn’t a hint of repulsion at all. The three surges of Highgod power, under Linley’s control, merged into a fused whole, and then as they did, the color changed as well.

Formerly, they were earthen yellow, light green, and azure- green; now fused together, they were an inky jade color, so dark as to be nearly black. This inky jade divine power roiled about within Linley’s body.

“So powerful.” Linley grew excited.

At the same time, Linley also used a hint of God-level ﬁre- type divine power to fuse with it. Once the ﬁre divine power touched that powerful surge of inky jade divine power, it too fused with it!

“Eh? The power actually grew weaker?” Linley could sense that after the inky jade divine power fused with the divine ﬁre power, it seemed to have become internally impacted, with the power weakening slightly. “Can it be because I have yet to reach the Highgod level in ﬁre?” This was Linley’s guess.

It wasn’t just random, as though fusing more would be better.

It was like an army; if an elite corps had some weaker soldiers added to it, it would actually lower their combat effectiveness.

“Right. When Olivier reached the God level, he said that when both of his divine clones reached the God level, only then did his power increase greatly.” Linley now completely understood.

In fusion, a balance was necessary.

Earth, wind, water; these three sources of divine power were at the Highgod level. As for ﬁre, it was only at the God level, rather weak.

“Linley, Linley!” Reisgem’s voice rang out, interrupting Linley’s line of thought.

Within the stone room, the other four were staring at Linley. Reisgem urged, “Hey, Linley, what’s going on? Stop just standing there like a fool; tell us what happened.”

“Let’s talk in the main hall.” Linley laughed as he spoke.

Linley’s group of ﬁve entered the main hall, surrounding the long table and sitting down.

“Linley, you successfully mutated your soul?” Blueﬁre said with a calm laugh.

“Right.” Linley nodded.

Blueﬁre’s eyes lit up, and he sighed in praise. “According to legend, if two types of divine power fuse, the power would increase tenfold. If three types fuse, the power will increase a hundredfold! If four types of divine power fuse…no one knows for sure, but it probably will strengthen a thousandfold. Even using Sovereign’s Might only allows a person to be a few hundred times stronger than when using Highgod power.”

“Linley how about you? You fused four types of divine power. How is your strength? Is it even stronger than when you use Sovereign power?” Reisgem asked expectantly. Sovereign power was strong, but there was a limit to it. It made someone a few hundred times stronger than when they used Highgod power.

“I feel…” Linley said with a laugh. “That after fusing three types of divine power, my strength is indeed a hundred times greater. I sense…that it is comparable to when I use Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might!” Linley was skilled in the Laws of the Earth, and so when he used Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might, it naturally wasn’t completely effective, only increasing his power a hundred-fold or so. It was comparable to a triple fusion of divine power.

Blueﬁre nodded slightly. It was all as Blueﬁre had expected.

“Then four kinds?” Reisgem said hurriedly.

“I’m not sure either.” Linley laughed.

“How can you not be sure?” Reisgem stared, and the nearby Bebe began to laugh. “Reisgem, my Boss’ divine ﬁre clone is only at the God level. If God-level divine power fuses with Highgod divine power, I imagine the strength wouldn’t increase that much.”

Reisgem was startled, then gave a few embarrassed chuckles. “I forgot. Linley, you’ve only been training for two thousand years.”

It was true. For someone who had been training for just two thousand years to possess three divine clones was already very terrifying. But of course, the Infernal Realm had many geniuses, some of whom trained even faster than Linley, but… one thing was for certain. There was deﬁnitely not a single person in the universe who was able to undergo a soul mutation successfully with four divine clones.

At least for now, Linley was absolutely one of a kind.

“Formidable, formidable.” Blueﬁre sighed in praise. “Soul Mutates are indeed terrifying. Once your divine ﬁre clone reaches the Highgod level as well, and you fuse four types of divine power, your strength will far surpass that of someone using Sovereign’s Might! But the rewards you reaped were commensurate to the danger you faced; this time, you just barely survived.”

“It really was a close call.” Bebe nodded as well.

“Mr. Leylin.” Linley suddenly frowned.

“What is it?” Blueﬁre asked, puzzled.

Linley shook his head. “I have a feeling right now. A unique feeling! A feeling of control! A feeling of control of material things, and even of the surrounding space.” As Linley spoke, he lifted his ﬁst. “I have a strange sense, as though I could punch a hold in space with a full-strength blow.” As Linley spoke, he smashed out with a full-strength punch.

Linley wasn’t in Dragonform, nor did he use Sovereign’s Might. As far as Laws went, he was far weaker than Paragons.

“RIIIP!” As his punch smashed outwards, space seemed to explode forth like a massive explosion on the surface of a lake, and a meter-long, giant spatial rift appeared.

“This…”

Bebe was stupeﬁed, and Reisgem and Reihom were speechless as well. Blueﬁre’s eyes lit up.

Prior to this, Linley had to be in Dragonform, use Sovereign’s Might, and use his godspark weapon to tear open a spatial rift. But by comparison…the power wasn’t as great as this ﬁst.

“Boss, you, your ﬁst…it’s almost on par with the palm blows of that Highgod Paragon, Bayer.”

Bayer had used a simple palm chop to tear a giant spatial rift open. “I…I’m not sure.” Linley was rather stupeﬁed. “I just have this feeling of control, as though I can easily split space apart. But I didn’t expect I could actually do it.”

“Linley!” A voice rang out.

Linley turned to look. The speaker was Blueﬁre. Currently, Blueﬁre’s face was covered in laughter. “Haha…Linley, that’s your Will, infused with the natural Laws! Since your Will encompasses the natural Laws, naturally you are able to control the world. This is a special power you now possess! The power that only Paragons and Sovereigns possess! Any attack, once infused with your will, will rise to a ludicrous level.”

“Will…power?” Linley was stunned.

“The power which only Paragons and Sovereigns possess?” Bebe and Reisgem were stunned as well.

Linley tested out this feeling of control and indeed, he felt as though he had power over the surrounding spatial ripples and movements.

This was something he never had before!

In the Planar Battleﬁeld, Linley had previously only sensed danger. But now, he had the feeling that he was in control of his own destiny. The feeling of standing above all other lifeforms and looking down upon them!”

“I didn’t expect this. I truly didn’t expect this.” Blueﬁre could hardly believe it. “The previous Soul Mutates had more powerful souls, but even those extremely rare triple-power Soul Mutates who are scattered throughout the universe did not develop this power! Who would have imagined…that a Soul Mutate with four divine clones would actually gain this sort of power!”

“It makes sense. A Soul Mutate with four divine clones has a soul which is far more powerful than a Soul Mutate with three divine clones! For a person’s soul to reach such a height in power…it only makes sense for the natural world to bestow this power upon that person.” Blueﬁre was very excited. And then, he turned his scorching hot gaze towards Linley. “Linley, come, come, attack me, try and attack me. Let me have a test and see how great your power is! Let’s see if you, a till now ‘impossible’ four-way Soul Mutate, is more powerful, or if a Paragon is more powerful!”

Chapter 52, The Path to the Peak

Linley, in his heart, also wanted to get a clear understanding of his current strength. A Highgod Paragon like Blueﬁre was an incredibly rare ‘whetstone’ for testing himself. How would anyone else dare to exchange blows with the current Linley?

“Fine, then.” Linley laughed and nodded.

The nearby Reisgem and Bebe were very excited. Reisgem was the sort who loved to spread chaos. “Haha, a Paragon on one side, and a never-before-seen quad-power Soul Mutate on the other. Don’t hold back, you two, have a huge battle. Even if you destroy this cave, that’s ﬁne.”

Linley just laughed. “No need. This battle is just for testing my strength. Mr. Leylin, for this battle, let’s only use our physical strength as well as the power of our Will. Let’s not use divine power or Sovereign power.”

“That’s a good idea.” Blueﬁre agreed with Linley’s suggestion. If Linley was too powerful or if Blueﬁre was too powerful and something occurred that was out of their expectations, that wouldn’t be good.

Outside the mountain, on the desolate landscape.

Linley and Blueﬁre were a hundred meters away from each other, while Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were gathered to one side, ﬁlled with eagerness. Bebe’s eyes were shining. “Reisgem, I’m willing to bet that my Boss isn’t weaker than Blueﬁre at all. He might even be stronger.”

“Who wants to bet with you?” Reisgem let out a snort. “Look, they are starting.”

Linley was dressed in a sky-blue robe, while Blueﬁre was dressed in a long white robe. The two beamed at each other, then began to attack!

Linley glided forth as agilely as the wind, almost dream-like, as multiple blurs emerged from him. As for Blueﬁre, he moved about so fast it seemed he was teleporting. As the two began to move, the three onlookers were badly startled. “Bebe, they are only using physical strength? Linley’s speed has reached such a ridiculous level.”

At this moment, Linley and Blueﬁre were moving at speeds slower than when Blueﬁre rushed over to save Linley, when he had hastened and even used Sovereign’s Might. Back then, with each movement, Blueﬁre had traversed multiple kilometers.

The current Linley was not relying on Sovereign power or divine power, just on his physical strength and the power of his Will.

“What a wonderful feeling.” Linley felt joy in his heart. “Just by relying on my physical strength and Will, my speed is so much faster than it was before. If I were to use divine power, most likely I wouldn’t be much weaker than Blueﬁre.” Linley’s control over the surrounding world made movement through it incomparably simple.

His speed was shocking. As the two moved, they began to exchange blows. The two simultaneously struck out with their ﬁsts… “Rumble…” Linley’s ﬁst shot out like a thunderbolt, slashing through the skies, resulting in that rumbling sound. Space was thrown into chaos, and one twisted spatial rift after another appeared.

“Smash!” Like a detonation, Blueﬁre struck out with his ﬁst, and the power of it instantly exploded forth. The speed of his ﬁst was much faster than even Linley’s punch, and a blurry ﬂash of red light could be seen.

Two seemingly ordinary punches. Neither dodged at all; they clashed head on.

“Bang!” A deep yet soft sound.

“Rumble…” At the point of the clash, space itself was completely unable to further endure such terrifying power, and seven or eight spatial rifts instantly appeared.

Linley and Blueﬁre both couldn’t help but take a step back.

They were evenly matched!

“Haha, wonderful, wonderful. Linley, there’s no need for us to hide our divine power. Let’s have one wonderful, all-out battle.” Blueﬁre, who had always been so graceful and poised, for once was feeling excited. His eyes were shining.

“Then be careful.” Linley said with a bit of a smirk. “My fused divine power isn’t much weaker than Sovereign power.”

“I’m not necessarily the one who needs to be careful.” Blueﬁre said with a laugh. “You have fused divine power, but I will directly use Sovereign power.”

From their earlier exchange of blows, Linley understood that there wasn’t a huge difference between them; since that was the case, there was no need for them to not even use divine power. Without using divine power, this battle wouldn’t be fun enough. The cold wind of the Planar Battleﬁeld howled past, rustling Linley’s clothes. Linley’s gaze, however, was completely focused on Blueﬁre in front of him. “It has been so many years. Grandpa Doehring, I’ve ﬁnally reached the true peak of Deities. The true peak. The person in front of me is a Highgod

Paragon.” His desire to battle increased to the limit, and Linley felt an irrepressible excitement.

“Rumble…” The inky jade divine power in Linley’s body began to roil about like dragons swimming in the sea.

Linley’s gaze suddenly became ﬁerce.

“Swoosh!” In midair, a series of blurred ﬁgures appeared, while Linley himself had already began exchanging blows with Blueﬁre.

The space of the Planar Battleﬁeld began to tremble, as one terrifying spatial rift after another was torn open. Previously, when Linley and Blueﬁre had only used their physical strength and Will to ﬁght, the spatial tears were small ones. But now, every single spatial rift was like an enormous gouge. Two virtually invisible blurs were constantly interacting, and around them, spatial rifts occasionally opened and occasionally closed.

Reisgem, Reihom, and Bebe watched numbly.

Two Paragons ﬁghting full force against each other with no reservations? This was quite rare.

“This…this…” Bebe, stunned, didn’t know what to say.

The space in front of them seemed to be quaking, constantly tearing apart and healing, due to the battle between Linley and Blueﬁre, these two supreme experts. It seemed as though in this area of battle, space itself was about to collapse. Reisgem and the other two now realized the huge distance between them!

Linley and Blueﬁre were titans. They were just infants.

“So powerful.” Reisgem cleared his throat, his eyes round.

“The power of Paragons!” Reihom held his breath as well, his gaze locked on that region. “And Linley. He isn’t weaker than Mr. Leylin at all.”

“No wonder Paragons treat ﬁghting with me as a game.” Reisgem let out a soft sigh. Previously, when the four of them met Bayer, Bayer completely toyed with them; he wasn’t able to ﬁght back at all. Fortunately, Bebe’s defense was simply too monstrous, which was why they were lucky enough to survive. But if Reisgem hadn’t insisted on protecting Bebe, Bayer would have driven Bebe into a spatial rift.

Irritate a Paragon?

Even if you had three Sovereign artifacts and were seemingly invincible, a Paragon could still drive you into a spatial rift. Unless a Sovereign were to intervene, you would be done for, and even if a Sovereign did want to intervene, it would be no simple task. “A battle between Paragon-level experts. Only against each other can they completely unleash their power.” Bebe sighed in amazement. “Boss, you are too strong.”

“And this is quite bizarre.” Bebe suddenly frowned. “That region of space is fractured so badly, but it can still instantly repair instead of completely collapsing. How bizarre. The weird thing is…the Boss and Blueﬁre are actually not affected by the gravitational pull of those enormous spatial tears near them at all. They didn’t go into chaotic space.”

Reisgem and Reihom nodded slightly.

Normally, when experts battled, the spatial rifts wouldn’t be too ridiculous; if spatial rifts did appear, experts would avoid them slightly.

But Linley and Blueﬁre completely ignored the spatial rifts, and even battled at the very borders of them.

“That must be what their Will permits.” Reisgem said in a low voice. “When one’s Will is as strong as a Sovereign’s, even chaotic space poses no threats; they can roam it as they please.” After being trapped in chaotic space, only someone on the level of a Sovereign could save you. Paragons weren’t at that level yet. This was the Will of a Sovereign.

Their guesses were correct.

Linley could clearly sense that the control he had over the universe made it so that the devouring power of the spatial rifts were completely unable to affect him.

“Rumble…” He punched out, and 108 inky jade ‘dragons’ of power emerged from Linley’s ﬁst, instantly covering Blueﬁre. A powerful gravitational force pressed down from all directions on Blueﬁre. This gravitational compression also contained the power of Linley’s Will, and was exceedingly strong.

For the pre-metamorphosis Linley, this technique was effective against ordinary commanders but was child’s play for a Paragon. But now…this technique was very dangerous against even Paragons. “Swish!” Like a bolt of lightning, a red light ﬂashed.

Blueﬁre’s ﬁst was always astonishingly fast.

“Bang!”

Their ﬁsts collided. Linley felt as though a volcano had exploded forth, as an irrepressible explosive power passed towards him. As for Blueﬁre, he felt as though the layers of strikes were like mountains hammering down towards him.

The two were knocked backwards and retreated.

“The battle should end here.” Blueﬁre sent mentally.

Linley laughed, then nodded.

This battle had attracted the attention of some nearby commanders, but when they saw what was going on here, and saw from afar how these apocalyptic spatial rifts that were over a hundred meters long were appearing, they were so terriﬁed that none of them dared draw near. This battle was simply too terrifying.

They were also puzzled.

Which two Paragons would be so bored, or have such irreconcilable differences, as to battle like this?

Within the cave. The ﬁve sat down to celebrate.

“Boss, haha, I am so happy.” Bebe smugly laughed loudly. “From today onwards, damn, who will dare to make trouble for us? They should be grateful if we don’t make trouble for them. I’ve had to swallow too much crap here in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Now, at least, we’re about to turn the tables.” It seemed as though Bebe wanted to give vent to an entire belly full of anger.

“Haha, drink.” Linley was extremely happy as well.

The breakthrough he had made today made it so that he would no longer have to look up to others.

What did it mean, to be on the Paragon level? It meant…that amongst ‘Deities’, there was no one capable of threatening him. As for Sovereigns? Unless absolutely necessary, Sovereigns wouldn’t interfere in the battles of Deities. What’s more…it wouldn’t be that simple for even Sovereigns to kill Paragons.

If something went wrong, Paragons could immediately ﬂee to a material plane.

In addition, Sovereigns would generally try to pull Paragons to their side. The Sovereigns all wanted to have a Paragon become their Emissary, but the Paragons themselves were naturally quite choosy. They would only pick someone they liked, or someone who was extremely strong as their Sovereign backer. For ordinary commanders, it was the opposite; the Sovereigns would pick them. As for Paragons, they picked their Sovereign.

Or, for some of the more arrogant ones, they wouldn’t become Emissaries at all. They didn’t want to listen to the orders of others. That was ﬁne. Paragons were qualiﬁed to act like this!

“Linley.” Reisgem began to chortle. “Have you ever considered becoming a Sovereign’s Emissary?”

Linley was startled.

The nearby Reihom nodded in approval. “Right. Linley, your strength has reached such a high level. Very few people know this, but once your strength becomes publicly known, you will deﬁnitely attract the interest of some Sovereigns. They will deﬁnitely work to try and make an expert like you become their Emissary.”

“A Sovereign’s Emissary?” Linley was rather hesitant. Bebe nodded repeatedly. “Right. Grandpa said it as well. There are very, very few Paragons, and most of them are quite arrogant. They don’t wish to become an Emissary. Paragons who become Emissaries of a Sovereign are rare; there’s only so many to begin with, while there are 77 Sovereigns. Boss, I imagine people will be ﬁghting over you.”

Reisgem hurriedly said enticingly, “Linley, actually, my mother is a very powerful Sovereign, and she’s treated you quite well. She gave you that Soulstone. How about, you come be my mother’s Emissary?”

Linley was rather hesitant.

“Mr. Leylin?” Linley looked towards Blueﬁre, awaiting Blueﬁre’s advice. After all, Blueﬁre was himself a Paragon.

“Why be an Emissary?” Blueﬁre laughed calmly. “If you refuse to be an Emissary, the Sovereigns can’t possibly act against you for such a reason. After all, after your power is put on display, quite a few Sovereigns will come invite you. You can’t possibly accept them all. More importantly…after becoming a Paragon, what’s the point of becoming an Emissary?”

“We train to pursue the peak of perfection. Although by becoming an Emissary, our Sovereign will also respect us and won’t order us around or force us to kneel to them, I still feel as though being free is better.” Blueﬁre said calmly.

In his heart, Linley agreed with Blueﬁre’s way of thinking.

“A Sovereign’s Emissary isn’t necessarily a servant.” Reisgem stared at Blueﬁre, hurriedly rebutting him. “Of course Sovereigns won’t care about ordinary Emissaries, but Paragons…they are people who possess a Will. Sovereigns will respect them and treat them as friends, rather than servants.”

Blueﬁre couldn’t help but laugh. “Reisgem, let’s talk about others. This is Linley’s decision to make.”

“Linley, what do you think?” Reisgem turned to look at Linley.

Linley smiled. “No rush. For now, I have no intentions of becoming a Sovereign’s Emissary. More importantly…Paragons have already reached the peak of fusing profound mysteries, with no further possible areas of improvement. Perhaps they might become a Sovereign’s Emissary out of boredom. But as for me, I have many things to do. After all, as far as the Laws go, I haven’t reached my limit. I am just imagining, after countless years, becoming a Paragon of a Law as well. What would that be like? I am quite eager to ﬁnd out.”

Chapter 53, Spiritual Power!

Hearing Linley say this, Reisgem could only rub his nose, not saying another word.

“Linley.” Reisgem suddenly began to laugh loudly. “If you don’t want to be an Emissary, then don’t. But Linley…if I, Reisgem, ran into any problems that I needed your help with, you have to help out. Just like how when we ran into that Montelo fellow. When I ask you to help out, you can’t put on airs of being a haughty expert.”

After having seen Linley and Blueﬁre battle, Reisgem had already come to view Linley as a ‘Paragon’ level expert.

“Reisgem, if there’s anything pressing, you can just send a message and I will deﬁnitely hurry over.” Linley said decisively.

Although Reisgem liked to joke about and was as arrogant as Bebe, he also treated friends sincerely and was a decent fellow. He had helped Linley before as well. “That’s all I need to hear.” Reisgem instantly began to grin. “I can’t be bothered to care about whether or not you want to be a Sovereign’s Emissary. All that matters is that in the future, if we run into those bastards, I’ll ﬁnally have a method for dealing with them. Hmph. Sovereigns won’t lower themselves to intervene, but Linley, although you are powerful, you are

still just a Deity. It won’t be too inappropriate for you to deal with them.”

Although Reisgem had the backing of the Redbud Sovereign, the Redbud Sovereign allowed Reisgem to suffer his own setbacks without intervening. Reisgem felt quite stiﬂed by this, but today, he, Reisgem, ﬁnally had a Paragon to call friend.

“Hmph. Hmph!” When Reisgem thought about how, in the future, he would have Linley’s assistance, and how he would have such a powerful backer, he couldn’t help but laugh delightedly.

“Reisgem, if you encounter any enemies, don’t always be in a hurry to have my Boss intervene. It’s enough for me to intervene against ordinary ﬁgures.” Bebe said, and then tossed a divine spark into his mouth. “We’re bros. No need to stand on courtesy.” Reisgem slapped his arm around Bebe and laughed loudly.

Blueﬁre smiled as he watched this, but he suddenly thought of something. He said seriously, “Everyone, no matter what, don’t reveal the fact that Linley is a Soul Mutate! A four-power Soul Mutate has never before existed. For now, it’s best to keep this a secret.” Hearing this, Linley nodded in approval as well.

“We know to keep this a secret. Don’t worry.” Reisgem nodded and said, “As for Reihom, don’t worry about him. He barely talks anyways.”

The nearby Reihom revealed a rare hint of a smile.

“Yo, Boss.” Bebe frowned. “But in the future, if you ﬁght others and reveal your power…”

“Then we’ll just publicly say…that Linley has become a Paragon as well.” Blueﬁre laughed. “Although the reputation of Paragons is formidable, there’s still a number of Paragons in the countless planes of the universe. Linley adding to their number won’t cause too tremendous a tumult in the world.”

Linley nodded. “Then I will listen to your advice, Mr. Leylin. Actually, as I see it, there’s no need to explain. If others see me reveal my power, they will only describe me as a ‘suspected Paragon’. As long as we don’t mention the fact that my soul mutated, and as long as I don’t use fused divine power, it won’t be revealed.”

Blueﬁre laughed as he looked at Linley. “Linley, normally, it is enough for you to use standard Highgod power. In a critical moment, you can use a drop of Sovereign’s Might. Your soul is so powerful that you can completely control Sovereign’s Might without wasting it at all. You can use just a portion of a single drop of Sovereign’s Might in a battle, and then, in the next battle a few centuries later, use the rest.”

This was the beneﬁt to Paragons using Sovereign’s Might.

Normal commanders, when using Sovereign’s Might, would constantly emanate Sovereign power and constantly waste it. But Paragons didn’t waste any. If they didn’t want to use it, they would store the Sovereign’s Might back into their body, to be used during the next great battle.

“That’s for the best.” Linley was moved.

Instantly, a drop of Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might swelled within Linley’s body. However, the constrictive power of Linley’s will was now too great, and the Destruction-type Sovereign power coalesced within Linley’s soul quite obediently.

“In the past, when I used Sovereign power, I felt as though I was carrying a mountain, unable to wield it as I pleased. But now, it feels so light and easily lifted.” Linley remembered how Beirut had been able to perfectly control Sovereign power to rescue Delia that year.

“Linley, it seems as though your Will is even stronger than that of a Paragon’s.” Blueﬁre suddenly said.

“Eh?” Linley was stunned.

“Even more powerful?” The nearby Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom all looked towards Blueﬁre. Bebe said, “Mr. Leylin, when my Boss fought against you, you were evenly matched.”

“Actually, I was at a disadvantage.” Linley said with a laugh. “Mr. Leylin’s attacks are very powerful. Fortunately, that technique of mine contains a spatial compression aspect. After infusing it with my Will, the power of that compression is far greater than that of ordinary spatial compression. Mr. Leylin was affected by that compression, which is why we were on par. In addition, Mr. Leylin didn’t use ﬁre-type Sovereign power, but Destruction-type Sovereign power, and so his full power wasn’t unleashed.”

Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were rather surprised.

However, during the battle, Blueﬁre’s power was either contained within his body or focused on his ﬁst, without any of it leaking out. From the outside, no one could tell what sort of Sovereign power he was using. But Linley was ﬁghting against him; naturally, he knew. Blueﬁre laughed. “You didn’t use the earth-type Sovereign power you specialize in either. How could I take advantage of you like that?”

The conditions were similar; the two were both using types of Sovereign power they weren’t proﬁcient in.

“Given this sort of situation, you were still able to ﬁght with me to a standstill. I was very surprised. Because…I have already fused six types of profound mysteries. You have only fused four.” Blueﬁre said. “Thus, I believe that your Will should be even stronger than the Will of a Paragon.”

A deeper level of understanding into the profound mysteries could raise one’s power.

But Linley and Blueﬁre fought to a standstill. Although this had to do with the spatial compression, in the end, one had fused four while the other had fused six. The difference was very great. “How can you tell if one’s Will is weak or strong?” Linley said.

“Simple.” Blueﬁre laughed. “Linley, control your Sovereign power and transform it into divine sense. See how far it extends to.”

The limits to which one could use Sovereign power to investigate was a test of the strength of one’s soul. In addition, once it was infused with one’s Will, the scope would increase greatly!

“Ordinary Paragons, when emanating Sovereign power on the Planar Battleﬁeld, can reach to a distance of eight thousand kilometers.” Blueﬁre continued, “Linley, don’t use your spiritual energy; just rely on Sovereign power to form a divine sense. See how far you can stretch.”

Eight thousand kilometers! This number caused Reisgem and the others to be frightened. Ordinary commanders, who didn’t use Sovereign power and just their own divine sense, were only able to reach to a hundred meters in the Planar Battleﬁeld. If they used Sovereign power, they would be able to reach perhaps a hundred kilometers. But Paragons were able to reach out to eight thousand kilometers. It was nearly a hundredfold difference!

“I will give it a try.” Linley, with a thought, caused the formless, colorless Sovereign power to spread out as divine sense.

Moments later, he reached his limit, unable to extend any further.

“Thirty six thousand kilometers!” Linley felt stunned. “My Will is actually far greater than that of a Paragon.” No wonder earlier, he was able to ﬁght Blueﬁre to a standstill. His Will far surpassed that of his opponent. Given that he also had the spatial compression to help out, he was able to make up for the difference in profound mysteries. With a thought, Linley retracted his Sovereign power, and then Linley released his own spiritual energy! Linley had the feeling that after his soul mutation, his soul had become very powerful. Just by looking at the speed at which it repaired his soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, one could understand how great it was. How far could he stretch, just by relying on his own spiritual energy?

It stretched outwards…

A thousand kilometers. Ten thousand kilometers. Thirty thousand kilometers. Sixty thousand kilometers. A hundred thousand kilometers.

Linley himself was shocked. After his soul mutation, he had yet to truly experience the true power of his spiritual energy, used at full strength.

“Magnus. Hemmers. Oman…” Linley clearly discovered every single familiar ﬁgure, but these people didn’t notice Linley’s investigations at all. In the end, Linley’s spiritual energy ﬁnally reached a limit.

“512,000 kilometers!” Linley was terriﬁed by this astronomical ﬁgure.

“My spiritual energy is even more powerful by itself than when using Sovereign power? That much more powerful?” Linley was stunned, but then he understood.

His divine power, with three types fused, was already close to that of Sovereign power. Once his divine ﬁre power reached the Highgod level, he would fuse four types of divine power, and his divine power strength would vastly surpass that of him using Sovereign’s Might!

But in terms of the soul, the metamorphosis was already complete. There was nothing to ‘fuse’.

A Soul Mutate with four clones. This made it so that Linley’s own spiritual energy was more than ten times stronger than using Sovereign power. “I imagine that a person with three clones who underwent a soul mutation would have spiritual energy and Will comparable to that of using Sovereign power!” This was Linley’s guess. He himself had four clones and underwent a soul mutation, making his spiritual energy even more terrifying.

“By the looks of it, my supreme technique should no longer be a material attack; it should be a spiritual attack.” Linley now understood that given his terrifyingly strong spiritual energy, even if his understanding as far as the profound mysteries went was lacking, when infused with his Will, the power would still be astonishing. “No…my, my innate divine ability!”

Linley suddenly thought of his innate divine ability. His innate divine ability was connected to his spiritual energy and that innate azure light.

“When my innate divine ability is infused with my spiritual energy and my Will, how strong will it be?” Linley was rather eager.

At the door to the cave estate.

“Linley, no need to send me off.” Blueﬁre said with a calm laugh.

Linley and the other four could only watch as Blueﬁre walked away leisurely. Given Linley’s current level, Blueﬁre didn’t feel any more pressure at all. If Linley was to meet with a problem he couldn’t resolve, Blueﬁre wouldn’t be able to assist either.

“Let’s go back in.” Linley said, then returned with Bebe into the cavern estate.

When Blueﬁre had inquired as to the strength of Linley’s Will, Linley admitted that his Will was indeed somewhat stronger than that of a Paragon’s. However, as no one asked him how strong his spiritual energy was, Linley didn’t discuss it.

Within the stone room. Linley was seated meditatively atop a stone bed. “My Will, compared to a Sovereign’s, is still far weaker.” Linley sighed to himself. The Will of a Sovereign was very terrifying. It could effortless stretch across the entire Planar Battleﬁeld. In fact, if a Sovereign truly desired to do so, a Sovereign could stretch his will across the entirety of the Infernal Realm or Netherworld, much less a Planar Battleﬁeld.

One could imagine how great this Will was.

Once a Sovereign came face-to-face with a Paragon, the Paragon wouldn’t be able to resist at all.

“The will of a Sovereign is too terrifying.” Linley let out a sigh. “They far surpass Paragons. Although at a distance, they might not be able to kill a Paragon with a thought, in close quarters, Paragons aren’t able to ﬁght back at all. My spiritual energy might be a bit stronger, but my Will is far from being a match for a Sovereign’s. They are able to spread it across the entirety of the Netherworld or Infernal Realm. What sort of Will is this?”

Linley felt terriﬁed just thinking about it.

“No wonder. Sovereigns and Deities are on completely different levels. This is a qualitative difference.” Linley sighed to himself.

One was like heaven while the other was like earth. Paragons or Soul Mutates; they were all ‘Deities’. Deities weren’t able to overcome Sovereigns. This was the ‘gulf’ between these two levels.

“Forget about the Sovereigns. As long as I don’t kill a Sovereign’s son, I’m ﬁne. Even if I beat a Sovereign’s son or daughter senseless, the Sovereign won’t intervene.” Linley no longer thought about it.

The Yulan Plane. The Forest of Darkness. The metallic castle.

“Haha…” Beirut began to laugh loudly. “He actually succeeded? Utterly unimaginable. Four divine clones, and yet he successfully mutated his soul. I didn’t even dare imagine it. But he succeeded!” By his side, Blueﬁre replied with a laugh. “Right. He succeeded.”

“Originally, when I talked about changing our plans, I was just speaking casually. I didn’t dare truly imagine it, because it wasn’t too realistic. But who would have imagined…now, it seems, a miracle is very likely about to be born from our hands!” The formerly ever-somber Beirut was now so excited that his eyes were shining.

“As I see it, let’s not be in a rush to tell Linley just yet.” Blueﬁre advised. “Right now, Linley needs to focus on fusing the different profound mysteries of different Laws.”

Fusing mysteries from the same Law would result in an increase in power, but it generally wouldn’t be too extravagant, just a tenfold increase or so.

But the fusing of profound mysteries of different Laws would result in an increase in power that was ridiculous; at least a hundredfold! For example, that ‘Learmonth’ which Linley encountered so many years ago had only fused two types of profound mysteries from different Laws, but was able to kill the master of Phusro, that ‘Elquin’.

Given that Linley trained in four types of Laws, if he was able to fuse one profound mystery in each of the four Laws into a whole, then the effect would vastly surpass an ordinary six- way fusion!

“His power…the stronger he grows, the better.” Beirut’s smile was utterly incandescent.

Chapter 54, Disappearing In a Blink of an Eye

The Planar Battleﬁeld. Within a stone room in the cave estate. Linley was seated quietly in the meditative position.

Linley was indeed focusing on his training, desiring to fuse the mysteries of four Laws. His original body and his three major clones were all focused on this; as for his divine ﬁre clone, it remained focused on the Laws of Fire.

Suddenly, Linley opened his eyes.

“How peculiar.” Linley had a hint of a smile on his face, but he didn’t understand. “The souls of my original body and three divine clones have all undergone a soul mutation, so why is it that the souls of my clones aren’t as strong as that of my original body? In addition, as far as the power of my Will goes, the Will of the original body is still the strongest.”

The stronger one’s soul was, the faster one gained insights and trained as well.

After undergoing a soul mutation, one could sense all four elements, and so Linley had his original body and his three divine clone souls focus on all four elements, but clearly, his original body’s speed far surpassed that of the other three clones.

“They underwent the same soul mutation, so why is there a difference?” Linley thought about it but didn’t understand. Shaking his head, he shut his eyes, once more focusing on his training.

What Linley didn’t know was that the reason a soul mutation occurred was that after one suffered a major wound and was sent into a coma, during that period of unconsciousness, the weak soul would rely on absorbing all sorts of nearby elemental essences. When Linley’s original body and three divine clones were in the coma, the three comas were only able to sense the nearby elemental essences of their respective elements, while the original body was simultaneously absorbing all four types of elemental essences.

Thus, the soul of the original body was the ﬁrst to begin to mutate.

Because the original body’s soul began to mutate, and because it was linked to the other souls of the four divine clones, the original body’s soul caused the other three souls to slowly mutate as well. But the original body was still the primary mover; naturally, it was the strongest after the mutation! The other three souls of the other divine clones were a bit weaker.

It was all one principle.

For example, Sovereigns. The Will of a Sovereign is exceedingly powerful, but Sovereigns generally had divine clones as well. The divine clones of Sovereigns, thanks to the original body, also contained Will, but the Will of the divine clones of Sovereigns was far, far weaker than the Will of the original body of the Sovereign. This was a primary-secondary issue.

The primary body for a Sovereign was their clone which became a Sovereign, with the other ones being secondary. As for Linley, his original body was the primary body, while the other ones were secondary.

There were nearly three hundred years left before the ﬁnal battle. Linley’s group of four lived a leisurely life, either training or congregating and chatting.

A century was spent in this leisurely training.

Linley and the others were seated together. Reisgem asked eagerly, “Linley, judging from that happy smile on your face, you must have made some breakthroughs in fusing different Laws, right?”

“I’m a long ways off.” Linley laughed calmly.

“Linley is very modest.” A low sound rumbled out. The speaker was the nearby Reihom. “He’s begun to learn to hide his strength. Only someone who is too powerful will choose to hide his strength. Hmph. For weaker people like us, we’d prefer to frighten others. A four- clone Soul Mutate. Whew, whew. I am aware that the fusing of different Laws will result in a huge increase in power. Fusing two profound mysteries from two different Laws is comparable to fusing three profound mysteries of the same Law. Fusing three profound mysteries from three different laws is comparable to fusing ﬁve profound mysteries of the same Law. Fusing four profound mysteries from four different Laws….is equivalent to fusing seven profound mysteries of the same Law. This is a level more powerful than even Paragons!” Reisgem said with a sigh.

The potential of a four-clone Soul Mutate truly was much higher than even that of Paragons.

“If my Boss isn’t formidable, who is?” Bebe said smugly. He had no idea what ‘humility’ meant.

“The power of fused Laws is great, but so too is the difﬁculty.” Linley shook his head and laughed. “I know a person. I met him when I was adventuring in the Redbud Continent; Learmonth. He was the one who killed Phusro’s master, ‘Elquin’. Despite Learmonth’s talents, he was only able to make his breakthrough at a dangerous point in the battle against Elquin. He was a Soul Mutate who only had two types of divine clones! It was so hard for him to fuse even just two different types of Laws.”

Bebe just chortled. “Boss, don’t be modest. You were even able to successfully undergo a four-way soul mutation. If you could do that, what can’t you do?”

Linley chuckled, then drank a cup of wine.

“But Boss, your soul is now mutated. Your training speed should increase greatly as well. Are you conﬁdent in being able to help your divine ﬁre clone to train faster and more quickly reach the Highgod level?” Bebe asked. “By then, with four types of divine power fused together, your strength will surpass that of when you use Sovereign’s Might.”

Linley’s original body’s soul was now thousands of times more powerful than before his mutation. The rate at which he comprehended and visualized had also become much faster. If his original body’s soul also focused on analyzing the Laws of Fire, the rate at which his divine ﬁre clone would increase in power would rise dramatically. When the Planar Battleﬁeld concluded, he would reach the level of Highgod.

“No rush.” Linley shook his head and laughed. “For now, I don’t wish to reveal that I am a Soul Mutate, and so I’m not in a hurry to make my divine ﬁre clone reach the Highgod level. Right now, what I need to do is fuse the different Laws; that matters more. My energy is all focused in this direction.” Linley knew very well.

His divine ﬁre clone trained very slowly, true!

But he had spent nearly seven hundred years in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Over these seven centuries, his divine ﬁre clone had nearly mastered a ﬁfth profound mystery. Although it was fairly slow compared to his other divine clones, Linley was in no hurry. However, Reisgem’s guess was a correct one; in the century after Linley’s soul mutation, Linley had connected the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ of the Laws of the Earth with the profound ‘Circular Softness’ mysteries of the Laws of Water. But of course, this was just a connection.

As time ﬂowed on, the ﬁnal battle drew closer and closer.

Within the stone room.

Linley was quietly seated in the meditative position, his four souls simultaneously visualizing and comprehending.

Within his mind, there was an illusory image of the vast, boundless earth. The throbbing pulse of this land was continuously emanating forth, but one line of energy tangled through and wrapped around it, much like the lines of energy the Chief Sovereign of Death had used at the Abyssal Inn. The lines wove throughout the ripples of the Throbbing Pulse of the World, inﬂuencing the pulse. Slowly, the Throbbing Pulse of the World began to mutually inﬂuence and be inﬂuenced by this endless, circular soft stream of energy. The two connected with each other…

“Boss, Boss!” Suddenly, a voice rang out.

Within the stone room, Linley opened his eyes and saw Bebe. “What is it, Bebe?” Linley laughed.

“Boss, have you been training so much that you’ve gone dumb? Have you forgotten what time it is? This year is the 1000th and ﬁnal year of the Planar War. I heard from Reisgem that most likely, in a month or two, the last battle will begin. Aren’t we even going to go watch the ﬁnal battle?” Bebe asked.

“The ﬁnal battle?”

Linley immediately rose to his feet and laughed. “Of course we are going to go watch! I’ve been training for so long. It is time for a break.” The ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and ‘Circular Softness’ profound mysteries…Linley’s four souls had been training on for three centuries after his soul mutation, but he wasn’t able to completely fuse them. He was still trapped in a bottleneck. No wonder the power of fused Laws was so great; the difﬁculty

was incredibly high as well.

He exited the stone room and arrived in the main hall.

Reisgem and Reihom were already standing there in the main hall. Reisgem laughed cheerily, “Linley, I was worried that you wouldn’t go. I know that you have enough commander badges, but I don’t have enough yet.”

“We’re a squad. If you’re going, how can I not go?” Linley said with a laugh.

“Then let’s go. Head out!” Reisgem and Bebe were in front, while Linley and Reihom followed from behind. The four of them exited this cave estate. Although three hundred years had gone by, the Planar Battleﬁeld was as cold and desolate as ever. When striding forth from the cave tunnels, that knife-like, icy wind scraped against their faces. It only caused Linley’s vigor to stir, however, as he stared at the desolate wilderness. “This trip to the Planar Battleﬁeld is almost over! The ﬁnal battle…the last ‘banquet’ to this event!”

This trip to the Planar Battleﬁeld, to Linley, was indeed a truly life-changing journey.

Linley’s group of four headed straight for the Stellar River.

The desolate wilderness. Wild grass grew everywhere.

There was a person lying on the ground. At ﬁrst glance, one might take him for a corpse left behind by a battle. This person had wild, grass-like hair, and a pair of hungry, man-eating golden eyes. It was Hemmers!

“I only need one commander badge! It’s been two centuries, and I haven’t run into a single person.” Hemmers lay there on the ground, grumbling to himself. “All of them rely on their speed; if they can’t beat me, they ﬂee. Hmph. That Azure Dragon clan punk in particular. I ran into him twice, but he relied on his Gravitational Space.”

Hemmers had a belly full of ﬁre, but no place to vent it.

“The ﬁnal battle is about to arrive.” Hemmers muttered.

“It seems I’ll have to take part in the ﬁnal battle in order to acquire a commander badge. After acquiring a ﬁnal commander badge, I will deﬁnitely ask the Sovereign to make me a spear! I can throw it and use it for long range combat, or for close combat. Hmph, given my material attack power, I’ll be able to throw it a great distance. By then, I want to see if those bastards will have any chance of ﬂeeing again!”

Indeed, a material attack strength comparable to Highgod Paragons, when combined with a ranged Sovereign weapon, would make it so that Hemmers would be a threat comparable to Paragons. “Hmph. Hmph. I hope that Azure Dragon clan kid will participate in the next Planar War. By then, I’ll have a ranged Sovereign weapon. I’ll deﬁnitely teach him a lesson.” Hemmers never forgot about that person who had escaped from him twice.

Suddenly…

“Huh?” Lying on the ground, Hemmers raised an eyebrow. “Someone is coming. Roughly ten thousand meters away!”

Hemmers himself was formed from part of the Divine Earth Plane. He was its ﬁrst golden mountain, which the plane nurtured over countless years. He was born with an innate, supernatural connection to the earth and the ground. When lying there on the ground, he could clearly sense the ground within a certain area, and if there was anyone stepping on the ground.

“Haha.” Hemmers sat up, staring into that direction, his golden eyes gleaming. “Perhaps this will be the last military merit. I won’t have to participate in the ﬁnal battle after all.” And then, Hemmers immediately merged into the earth itself. Worldwalking!

On the desolate ground, Linley and the other three were walking shoulder-to-shoulder, chatting and laughing casually. Given the power of this group of four, there was no one they feared here in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Anyone who made trouble for them was courting death.

Linley’s gaze suddenly sharpened, and he laughed calmly. “Someone is coming over. Be careful, everyone.”

“Someone is coming?”

Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were startled. They didn’t sense anything. But Linley, after his soul mutation, had an extremely strong control over the universe; as soon as anyone drew near, Linley would easily notice them. “An expert of the earth, using Worldwalking.” Linley said, spreading out his divine sense.

“Oh, him?” Linley had a hint of laughter on his face.

Hemmers thought that he was being stealthy; generally speaking, a person using Worldwalking would only be detected upon reaching a distance of a hundred meters or so. This was common knowledge, but for Paragons and people like Linley, this wasn’t true. Hemmers’ usage of Worldwalking was detected by Linley from far away.

“Rumble…” Suddenly, a hundred meters away, an enormous ﬁgure erupted forth from the earth, bounding forward like lightning towards Linley.

“It is you, you Azure Dragon clan brat!” Hemmers realized who Linley was now. “This Azure Dragon clan brat is able to transform, and also use Gravitational Space. Killing him is rather hard!”

He charged towards them, bounding forward like lightning.

“Eh, he didn’t transform or use his Gravitational Space?” Hemmers was amazed. Having fought several times with Linley, he knew how strong Linley was; why was it that when he charged in front of them, Linley didn’t react at all?

Hemmers, who had been preparing to attack ‘Reihom’, chose to attack Linley instead!

“You yourself are courting death. Don’t blame me.” Hemmers smashed out with his ﬁst, causing a deep, thundering sound as cracks in space appeared.

Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom just watched and laughed. Linley very casually swept out with a punch, and instantly, 108 rays of earthen yellow light swept out, instantly forming a Gravitational Space that trapped and compressed Hemmers within it. Linley swept out with his space-shattering punch…

Microcosm! “This…what’s going on?” Hemmers felt as though the surrounding space was compressing powerfully around him, slowing him down signiﬁcantly and making him feel miserable. He had tasted this technique of Linley’s before, but the power was far, far greater than it was last time!

His ﬁst was extremely slow, completely unable to block Linley’s punch.

“Bang!” The ﬁst rose upwards in an uppercut, connecting with Hemmers’ lower jaw and sending Hemmers ﬂying into the air.

Chapter 55, The Experts By the Banks of the Stellar River

A bone-shattering sound rang out, and Hemmers was knocked ﬂying backwards.

“This…what is this?” Hemmers was completely stunned. “The Azure Dragon clan brat, what’s going on with him? The ﬁrst time I met him, he wasn’t able to ﬁght back at all. He had to rely on Sovereign power, his Gravitational Space, and his innate divine ability in order to escape. The second time I encountered him, the brat was able to ﬁght me head on. This third time…I’m completely unable to ﬁght back?”

Stupeﬁed!

Completely stupeﬁed!

“No matter how much of a genius a person is, this is ridiculous.” Hemmers landed on the ground, staring at the distant Linley, his mind a mess. Blood dribbled down his face. Hemmers shook his head, then muttered to himself, “Impossible. Something must be wrong.” Hemmers still hadn’t reacted, but he hurriedly began to cure his wounds. “This Azure Dragon clan punk’s ﬁst actually broke my lower jaw and shattered my teeth.”

Hemmers possessed terrifyingly strong material defense. When Linley had ﬁrst met him, a full-force sword blow was only able to barely scratch his skin.

Hemmers’ skin possessed weak defense. His muscles were strong and bones were stronger!

Linley’s casual punch was able to shatter his jaw?

“Hey, Hemmers, why are you just standing there like an idiot? Didn’t you want to kill us to get our commander badges?” Bebe smugly began to laugh loudly towards him.

“Impossible. Something must be wrong!!!” Hemmers howled furiously.

“BOOM!” Hemmers’ entire body suddenly began to glow with an earthen yellow light, and a brilliant golden light ﬂooded through him as well, making his ﬁsts and legs especially bright. Hemmers was like a crazed bear, transforming into a ray of lightning as he charged once more towards Linley.

Hemmers clearly had gone mad.

“He really is a big dumb idiot.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Hemmers was howling furiously. His full-strength punch smashed through the skies, and he moved like a dragon as he attacked Linley. “Rumble…” Where his ﬁst passed, the space of the Planar Battleﬁeld was constantly torn asunder like fragile glass. Multiple spatial tears that were tens of meters long were created.

“Although he’s a bit stupid, he really is quite strong.” Linley still smiled. The same response!

A ﬁst struck out, and over a hundred black dragons of energy swept towards Hemmers. This time, Linley actually used Destruction-type Sovereign power. “This Hemmers used Sovereign power; to subdue him, I really will have to use Sovereign power.” Although he was able to easily defeat Hemmers, Linley had to acknowledge his opponent’s strength.

“Crackle…” The hundred-plus dragons formed into a cage, binding Hemmers within…Microcosm!

That compressive power that was far greater than before once more formed, making Hemmers feel very uncomfortable throughout his entire body. In this situation, his speed slowed drastically, and he could only watch as Linley’s ﬁst smashed against his body.

“BANG!”

A ﬁst landed on Hemmers’ chest, and a bone-splitting sound rang out yet again as Hemmers was knocked ﬂying backwards, his legs being driven deeply into the ground.

“What is going on?!” Hemmers stared at his chest, where a large, bloody hole had appeared, with blood leaking out. This injury was even more severe than the previous one; his ribs were completely shattered. Fortunately, Hemmers’ body was tough enough that the punch didn’t go straight through his chest.

But a blow of such power…if it landed against his head, he deﬁnitely would have died!

Hemmers was shocked to his senses!

“Hemmers, do you want to come again?” Linley chortled.

“Hey, Hemmers, aren’t you really tough? What, are you stupeﬁed now?” Reisgem laughed teasingly, and as he spoke, Reisgem voluntarily released his aura. “You are…Reisgem?” Only now did Hemmers recognize him.

“My aura-hiding abilities are too great. Unless I wish it, someone like you, Hemmers, would never be able to recognize me.” Reisgem said smugly. His aura-suppressing abilities really were formidable, but against the likes of Linley or Magnus, he would still easily be detected.

Hemmers looked carefully at Linley.

“You…in the past, were you intentionally toying with me?” Hemmers said in a low voice.

“No.” Linley laughed and shook his head.

Hemmers stared at Linley. He couldn’t help but grow a bit angry. “Azure Dragon clan brat, your strength is so great; why did you toy with me like that? Although I, Hemmers, am a bit slow to react, I’m not so stupid to the point where I’ll believe that a brat who wasn’t able to ﬁght back a few centuries ago could, a few centuries later, easily trample me!” Hemmers didn’t ﬂee, because he knew…

Given his pitiful speed, there was no way he could ﬂee.

“Why would I deceive you?” Linley laughed calmly. “You can leave now. I don’t want to kill you.”

“Not kill me?” Hemmers was stunned.

In the Planar Battleﬁeld, if you couldn’t beat someone, you would generally be killed. But today…

“Fine. I believe you when you say you weren’t previously toying with me.” Hemmers gave Linley a long look. “Can you tell me, how long have you been training for?”

“Less than three thousand years.” Linley didn’t hide anything.

Hemmers was stunned, and he blinked twice. “Less than three, three, three…thousand years?” Hemmers stared at Linley in disbelief. “I really want to ask you something. Are you toying with me, or did I hear incorrectly? Or perhaps you meant less than three thousand millennia.”

Hemmers was able to believe three million or thirty million years, but three thousand? This was a bit too frightening.

“You didn’t mishear.” Linley laughed while shaking his head. “Bebe, let’s go.”

Linley, Reisgem, Reihom, and Bebe chortled as they walked away. Bebe turned and look at Hemmers. “Haha, big idiot, don’t just stand there like a fool. Even if you stand there for three millennia, you still aren’t comparable to my Boss.”

“Less than three thousand years? The Planar War has only been going on for a few centuries, and he’s fought with me three times. But each time…” Hemmers, previously stupeﬁed, was ﬁnally starting to come to his senses. He stared with a bit of trepidation as Linley left. “What a truly terrifying person. In less than three thousand years, he’s constantly advanced. He’s also a member of the Azure Dragon clan. For his material attack to be this strong… he should be a Paragon.”

“Three thousand years. Paragon?”

Hemmers suddenly sat down on the ground, then lay down casually, his head still woozy.

“Ah.” Hemmers suddenly slapped himself against the head. “Forgot to ask’m. What’s his name! Forget it, I’ll just refer to him him as that ‘Azure Dragon clan brat.’” Hemmers, in his mind, had ﬁrmly memorized this Azure Dragon clan brat, who apparently had the terrifying power of a Paragon.

“It seems this ﬁnal battle will be very exciting.” Hemmers mumbled. “So many experts. Mm. I have to go watch.” Hemmers rose to his feet as he spoke, also moving towards the Stellar River.

Only, he was still rather leery of Linley. Thus, the route Hemmers took was slightly different from Linley’s.

The Stellar River was a thousand kilometers wide, and more than a million kilometers long. The entire Planar Battleﬁeld was divided into two.

The wide Stellar River was extremely brilliant, and the rainbow-colored regions of spatial chaos ﬂowed about, but the experts of the Planar Battleﬁeld all understood that although the chaotic space was beautiful, they contained terrifying levels of energy. If one became trapped within, they would quickly be lost. Even Paragons didn’t dare enter spatial rifts.

One could imagine how terrifying they were.

At present, Linley’s group of four was standing by the banks of the Stellar River. “So many years have passed. I’ve always been on this side of the Stellar River. Our military headquarters is located on the opposite side.” Reisgem said with a laugh. “Let’s go…it’s time to visit our main camp. On this side, there is no way we will be able to participate in the ﬁnal battle. I want to acquire a few extra commander badges.”

As he spoke, Reisgem was the ﬁrst to enter the Stellar River.

It was much like when Linley had ﬁrst come; they had to ﬂy through crooked little paths of safety!

Reihom, Bebe, and Linley all immediately followed.

Originally, when they passed the Stellar River on the way to other side, Linley and Bebe were both rather nervous, afraid that they might accidentally slip into a spatial rift. This time returning, however, Linley himself felt quite relaxed.

“The Stellar River is indeed beautiful.” Linley could even leisurely enjoy watching the surrounding spatial rifts, as well as the giant boulders and small mountains that hovered in the middle of the Stellar River.

As they passed through the river, given Linley’s control over space, he was able to clearly sense which places were safe and which parts were dangerous. Even if he touched a spatial rift, given Linley’s current power, there was no way he would be sucked within.

Linley’s group of four quickly passed this distance of a thousand kilometers.

Every single Planar War would last a thousand years. For the vast majority of this period of time, ordinary soldiers had no assignments; they could safely stay in their side’s headquarters. But when a thousand years passed, the soldiers began to grow busy. At this moment, in the Planar Battleﬁeld, in each side’s headquarters, everyone began to move towards the banks of the Stellar River.

They gathered around at each side of the two corridors of the Stellar River. The two sides arrayed themselves by the banks.

The camps stationed alongside the Stellar River were fairly long. At the same time, there were quite a few patrolling soldiers who moved about nearby. Their current mission was… receive commander-level experts!

After all, during the ﬁnal battle, some scattered commanders would also regroup with them. The armies would naturally welcome the commanders to join them; after all, the strength of a commander was far greater than an ordinary soldier, and they would be of great use during the ﬁnal battle.

A hundred or so soldiers were casually seated in the meditative position next to an earthen hill. Others were resting lazily against the hill, or standing and watching their surroundings. This was one of the patrol squads for one of the military camps of the Divine Darkness Plane’s side.

“Captain, someone just came to our side of the Stellar River. There are four in total.” A silver-haired, violet-eyed soldier called out hurriedly. “Oh? Probably a commander. Let’s get a closer look.” This captain of his hundred-man squad was a bald, hook-nosed man. He immediately led his squad to move closer. They weren’t too worried, because not too far behind them was their military camp. In addition, they didn’t go too close to the four.

When they reached a distance of two or three hundred meters.

“They belong to our side!” The captain let out a sigh of relief.

They could sense the badges of the four.

Immediately, the hundred-man squad drew closer.

“Hey, who are you?” A youth wearing a straw hat called out.

The bald, hook-nosed captain immediately bowed respectfully. “Milords, we are here at the orders of the commanders to receive you.” “Let’s go, Linley.” Reisgem laughed. “It was like this in the past as well. Towards the end, the military camps would all invite us to join them, whether to watch or to actually participate. Within the military camps…there are groups of commanders who are familiar with each other. It also makes coordinating easier.”

Linley nodded. “Then let’s go.”

“Please follow me, milords.” The captain said humbly.

Linley’s group of four, following the captain, moved forward, with the hundred soldiers following. They arrived at the nearby military camp. This military camp had many stone houses built, and soldiers could be seen everywhere.

“This is our headquarters, and these are the houses that were made just for commanders. Commanders can select any vacant house.” The captain pointed to the front. “There are twenty houses, three of which are occupied and seventeen of which are empty. Just by looking at the courtyard gate, you’ll know if there is anyone present. Vacant houses have locked gates.” One plain, unadorned stone manor after another had been built in the empty space up ahead. There were twenty of them.

“Someone else came?” Two ﬁgures emerged from one of the courtyards, one a youth who was as skinny as a bamboo rod with strange, sinister, cold eyes. By his side was a white-haired, white-bearded elder whose face was wreathed in smiles.

“Oh, Reisgem.” The skinny youth said with a light laugh.

“Woodridge [Wu’te’li’qi], didn’t know you came as well.” Reisgem snickered, then said to Linley, “Linley, don’t pay this fellow any mind. Let’s go in.” Reisgem seemed to be very disdainful towards this skinny youth.

“Right.” Linley couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to this person either.

“Linley? I heard that a Linley emerged within the Four Divine Beasts clan in the Infernal Realm. So that’s him?” Woodridge looked towards Linley and chuckled. “I looked at that scryer recording. Your strength is quite average. It’s one thing for you to kill a few ordinary Seven Star Fiends, but coming to the Planar Battleﬁeld is just suicide.”

Linley turned to give him a sideways glance. Woodridge was startled, but then Linley immediately followed Reisgem into the courtyard.

“Woodridge, the genius expert of the Goldeye Bats? What’s that look on your face?” Bebe glanced at him, giving him a disdainful smirk, then followed Linley into the courtyard.

Chapter 56, Bebe’s Request

If Woodridge was unhappy with the way Linley looked at him, he was absolutely livid with the disdainful look Bebe had given him and the way Bebe had spoken to him.

“That straw hat wearing brat!” Woodbridge’s face sank, and he was about to bark back at him.

“Woodridge, don’t be impulsive.” The nearby white-haired elder sent mentally.

“What is it?” Woodridge turned to look at the white-haired elder. “It’s one thing for Reisgem to be so arrogant in front of me, but that brat with the straw hat, who the hell does he think he is? I’ve never even heard of him.” For someone to survive in the Planar Battleﬁeld until now was proof of one’s strength. Woodridge wouldn’t so easily allow others to insult him.

If he heard a single displeasing word, he would want to kill the speaker!

“You didn’t go to the other side of the river, so you have no idea who that youngster with the straw hat is.” The white- haired elder said solemnly. “The reputation of that youngster with the straw hat is known throughout the headquarters of the Divine Light Plane!”

“Oh?” Woodridge’s pupils contracted. “Who is he?”

“The second Godeater Rat, aside from Beirut!” The white- haired elder said solemnly.

Woodridge’s face changed. “What? Godeater Rat?! How can that be? Isn’t Beirut the one and only Godeater Rat? Where did another one come from?”

“I was adventuring on the other side of the river. Of course I know this news. You can ask anyone; any of the commanders who went adventuring on the other side of the river will deﬁnitely have heard of this Godeater Rat, a youngster who wore a straw hat. You had best be careful.” The white-haired elder gave him a sideways glance. “If something goes wrong, don’t say no one warned you!”

After speaking, the white-haired elder returned to his own residence.

“Godeater Rat?” Woodridge watched Linley’s group enter their courtyard, and then, with a low snort, departed.

The manors which the military camp arranged for each commander were all very large, with many rooms.

“Not bad, not bad!” Reisgem stepped into the main hall, glancing around before sighing with satisfaction. “It as though the members of this military camp bought quite a few decorative items before entering.” The main hall had a number of decorative items; even the tables and chairs were made of wood. At a single glance, one could tell that they weren’t made from the materials of the Planar Battleﬁeld.

“Linley, we no longer need to do anything. Just rest. Later, I imagine the commander of this military camp will come pay us a visit. The commanders living nearby will probably come visit as well. All we have to do is accompany them! As for the ﬁnal battle, there’s more than a month left before it arrives.” Reisgem immediately headed to a nearby room. “During this period of time, I’ll live here.”

Linley and the others all selected their own residences.

Indeed, as Reisgem predicted, soon after they moved in, the commander of this military camp came to pay them a visit. Afterwards, Linley’s group received visits from the nearby commanders as well. But of course, Reisgem and the others didn’t openly publicize Linley’s strength.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

Within the courtyard. Linley and Bebe were seated, facing each other.

“Bebe, why the frown? If there’s something you want to say, why hold back? Just say it.” Linley could immediately tell that Bebe had something on his mind.

Bebe took a deep breath.

“Boss, actually, I feel quite conﬂicted.” Bebe looked at Linley.

“Eh? About what?” Linley asked.

Bebe lowered his head, resting it against the table, staring at it. In a soft voice, he said, “Boss, actually, there was another reason why I wanted you to come participate in the Planar War. In my heart, I’ve been hesitating…about whether or not to let my mother and father come back to life as well.”

Linley was stunned. How could he have forgotten?

The ever-carefree appearance Bebe had put on over all these years had caused Linley to not think about certain things…but Bebe’s thoughts weren’t necessarily the same as Linley’s. “I’ve never met my parents. I don’t know what they are like. My mind is very chaotic right now. I have no clear image of them in my mind. I don’t really think about them that much. I became accustomed long ago to not having parents, but…I still feel regret over it.”

Bebe mumbled softly to himself, “I didn’t think too much about it, but Boss, for the sake of saving your family and friends, you came to the Planar Battleﬁeld. That moved me. Should I ﬁnd my parents as well? But I know that it’s really hard for you to collect commander badges, Boss. I don’t want to add to your burden. And so, I’ve been hesitating about whether or not I should search for my parents, which is why I didn’t plan on saying anything.”

“But, Boss, now you are so powerful. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to collect two more commander badges. That’s why I am starting to think about this again.”

Bebe lifted his head up to look towards Linley.

“Bebe. I’m sorry.” Linley said apologetically.

He truly felt ashamed. He and Bebe were lifelong brothers, and Bebe had risked his life to battle with him here in the Planar Battleﬁeld. But he himself had actually forgotten Bebe’s parents!

“Boss, don’t say that.” Bebe shook his head. “Actually, I’m still a bit hesitant over whether or not I should look for my parents. After all, I’ve never met them…and I have no idea if the undead my parents were transformed into are dead or alive. If I were to be able to meet my parents, what should I say to them? They probably wouldn’t even recognize me if they saw me!”

Bebe’s mother didn’t get to see Bebe grow up and transform into human form. Even if she regained her memories, she wouldn’t recognize Bebe on sight.

“To meet again without recognizing each other…” Bebe had very complicated, mixed emotions in his heart. Bebe had planned on just saying ‘forget it’; his parents had their own fate, and there was no point trying to force things. And, originally, it was indeed hard for Linley to collect enough commander badges. But now, things were different.

“Don’t worry about it. Let me handle this. I’ll get two more commander badges!” Linley promised.

“Right.” Bebe nodded.

“Whew!” Bebe sat up straight, letting out a breath. “Damn, forget it! They are my parents. I’ll meet them! Heh heh, I imagine that if they knew that they had a Godeater Rat for a son, they would be very proud.” Bebe seemed to have shrugged off his annoyances, becoming carefree once more.

Linley chuckled. In his heart, he had already made up his mind that during the ﬁnal battle, he would acquire two more commander badges.

Linley and Bebe had travelled together their entire lives. Bebe was willing to sacriﬁce his life for Linley, and the opposite was true as well. In addition, given Linley’s current level, it would actually be quite hard to make him die.

“Knock!” “Knock!” Suddenly, a knocking sound.

Linley waved his hand, and a surge of divine power swept forward, pushing the courtyard door open. In walked a person, a black-haired youth with black-colored, gold-edged robes. “Linley. Bebe. Are Reisgem and Reihom here?” This was the commander of this military camp, ‘Walnut’ [Wo’nuo’te]. The commanders who came to the Planar Battleﬁeld included both solitary commanders as well as commanders responsible for military camps.

“Hey, what is it?” A voice rang out from the main hall, then Reisgem ﬂew out.

Linley and Bebe looked towards Walnut as well.

“Here’s the situation. Before the ﬁnal battle begins, the commanders of the military camps and the roving commanders will all gather together once to discuss our strategy for the ﬁnal battle. At the same time, everyone can get familiar with each other.” Walnut said with a laugh.

“When is it?” Reisgem asked.

Linley knew about this as well. A meeting before the ﬁnal battle was a custom.

“Today!” Walnut nodded and laughed. “There are already commanders waiting outside. Reisgem, the four of you can go out as well. I’ll go inform each of the other commanders, and then we’ll head out together.”

“Fine.” Reisgem nodded, and Linley and the others all walked outside as well.

There were indeed three people outside already. When the three saw Linley’s group of four, then laughed and greeted him. “Reisgem, Bebe, Reihom, Linley!” They all walked over. Linley’s group of four welcomed them. As others saw it, Linley’s four-man squad should have been formed around Reisgem and Bebe as the core.

As for Reihom and Linley, they were somewhat ignored. After all, Reisgem’s reputation and Bebe’s reputation as a ‘Godeater Rat’ were simply too great.

Soon, the commanders of this military camp had all gathered here.

Including Walnut, there were a total of ten commanders.

“Alright, everyone, let’s head out.” Walnut said with a laugh.

“There are dozens of military camps. Each camp actually has ten or so commanders. Then the dozens of military camps combined…how many commanders is that!” Bebe said with a sigh.

“Not that many.” Walnut said with a calm laugh. “That’s because most of the military camps are centered around the ends of the two corridors connecting each side of the Stellar River. Thus…it’s always the outermost military camps which welcome commanders back! The military camps located deeper inside don’t receive any commanders.”

Bebe now understood.

“Thus, our Divine Darkness Plane’s side has a total of at most ﬁfty or so surviving commander-level experts, all combined.” Walnut gave an estimated ﬁgure.

Over a thousand years, quite a few commanders had died.

The surviving commanders weren’t that numerous, but of course, amongst those who went roving about, the survivors weren’t necessarily all commanders; just commander-level experts. For example, although Bebe and Reihom were very powerful, they entered with the status of ordinary soldiers, and followed by the side of Linley and Reisgem, which is why they were allowed to rove about.

The military camp was divided into two wings, and Linley’s group was currently moving alongside the banks of the Stellar River, towards the direction of the Stellar River’s ‘port’.

The gathering place for this meeting was close to one of the corridors.

This was an estate that was slightly larger than the one in which Linley’s group was living in. The courtyard had multiple chairs and tables situated within it, and there were around twenty or thirty people located within the courtyard.

“Walnut, you came!” As Walnut’s group moved forward, quite a few people immediately noticed them.

“Haha, Ouville [Wu’wei’er], aren’t you the lucky one. Still alive, eh?”

“Barnsley [Ba’en’si’li], you came to the Planar Battleﬁeld this time? Haha…”

“Reisgem!” Immediately, the group of commander-level experts began to call each other’s names out, chatting and laughing with each other. These supreme experts of their respective planes were fairly familiar with each other, and many were even friends.

Linley, Bebe, and Reihom knew very few people. And so, they moved to a corner of the courtyard, found three seats, and sat down. Taking out some cups and some wine, they began to drink.

A while later, after Reisgem was done socializing with some old friends, he returned as well.

“How festive.” Bebe said with a laugh.

Reisgem said with a smirk, “Festive? Some are happy, others are mocking. Those who are friends with you hope you will live; those who don’t like you hope you will die. You know very few people. In a bit, I imagine some people will come chat with you, and you’ll quickly become familiar with them.”

Linley smiled calmly, lifting his cup and taking a light sip.

“Woodbridge, you came with them as well. Who are the three next to Reisgem?” Commander-level experts also needed to know information about each other; the more details they knew about other commanders, the better.

Before Woodbridge had a chance to speak, a big bald fellow nearby said in a whisper, “I don’t know the other two, but that one wearing the straw hat…his name is widespread on the other side of the river, in the camps of the Divine Light Plane’s side. That’s the second Godeater Rat, aside from Beirut!”

“Godeater Rat?” Quite a few people were stunned.

Too few of them had soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts. Without one, anyone who met Bebe would die. After all, Paragons were extremely, extremely rare.

These people looked towards Reisgem and Bebe in surprise. “And which two incredible ﬁgures are currently seated next to Reisgem and the Godeater Rat?” Woodbridge laughed. “Those two are quite ordinary. That icy-looking fellow is Reihom, an Emissary of the Redbud Sovereign. The brown-haired kid next to him is fairly famous in the Azure Dragon clan; his name is Linley!”

“Linley?” Indeed, there were some, especially in the Infernal Realm, who had heard of Linley. However, in the eyes of these commanders, Linley’s performance in the scryer recordings showed that he was only a powerful Seven Star Fiend, not yet at the level of commanders. They didn’t care about him.

As time ﬂowed onwards, more and more commander-level experts entered, quite a few of whom knew the others present and began to chat with them. Very few people, however, came to chat with Linley; after all, Linley’s status as a ‘Lord of Tartarus’ was only gained after the Planar War had already begun. Linley himself couldn’t be bothered to chat up these people; he actually preferred the peace and quiet.

Chapter 57, The Final Battle

Within the courtyard, ﬁfty-plus commander-level experts were gathered together. Linley’s group of four was seated in the corner, while servants walked about, carrying platters and delivering wine, food, and fruit.

“This gathering is completely boring!” Bebe went ‘crunch’ ‘crunch’ as he chomped through a round, slick, violet-skinned fruit. The juice dribbled down. “What’s the point of having us come? This gathering is centered around those commanders with military camps discussing their strategies for the ﬁnal battle. The rest of us are just sitting around and watching like idiots.”

Linley laughed, then glanced at the commanders located closer to them within the courtyard.

This group of commanders was consisted of commanders who managed military camps. Clearly, they were discussing some of the details of the ﬁnal battle. As for Linley and the other solitary commanders, they didn’t participate in the discussions.

“We didn’t bring any soldiers. What is there to discuss?” Reisgem glanced at the commanders, then at the other commanders who, like them, were bored and chatting in the corners of the room. “The others are like us. They are just sitting there, bored, right? The purpose of us coming is to familiarize ourselves with the other commanders. This is just a gathering. Nothing else.”

Clearly, the discussion regarding the details of the ﬁnal battle was a fairly simple one, as a short time later, that group of commanders ﬁnished their conversations.

“Everyone.” One of the commanders, a man with three eyes, stood up and looked at them. Smiling, he said, “There isn’t much time left between now and the ﬁnal battle! Everyone, whether you choose to participate or to spectate is up to you! If you plan to participate, it will be the same as it always has been; you’ll be mixed in with the soldiers! I trust there’s nothing more that I need to say!”

The Planar Wars had been carried out many, many times now. Many things had become customs already.

When intermixed in with ordinary soldiers, it would be hard to tell commanders apart from ordinary soldiers. That helped guarantee that the enemies wouldn’t focus their ﬁre on one commander in particular. It would increase the odds of survival, but of course, if someone’s performance was too impressive, it would still be dangerous.

“The side of the Divine Light Plane, do they have any particularly powerful experts? If they do, please let us know, so that we will be prepared.” The three-eyed commander said.

“I know that the Divine Light Plane has Magnus in their camp!” A commander-level expert said loudly.

“Magnus. We do indeed have to be careful.” The three-eyed commander nodded solemnly.

Reisgem, seated in the corner, laughed loudly. “I know of another person, the Paragon of Wind, ‘Bayer’. He is here as well. In addition, he is on the side of the Divine Light Plane.” “Bayer?” This name attracted everyone’s attention.

Although though quite a few more names were listed, clearly, what everyone was truly concerned about was the presence of ‘Magnus’ and ‘Bayer’. After all, Paragons already stood at the very tip of power. If Paragons wished to kill ordinary commanders, it would be a slaughter. In addition, if one tried to use group attacks, given how astonishingly fast Paragons were, using such a tactic would just be laughable.

“Blueﬁre, why hasn’t Blueﬁre revealed himself?” Reisgem secretly chatted with Linley. “He belongs to our side. He should show himself.”

Linley shook his head, puzzled. “I’m not sure either. He prefers to travel alone, I suppose.”

This gathering was a chance for the various commander-level experts to meet each other; after all, outside of the Planar Battleﬁeld, it wasn’t too practical to arrange a meeting of so many commanders. This sort of gathering was also a community; a community of the highest level Deities.

Although Linley didn’t want to chat much with these people, there were still many who came and said a few words to him. They were all acquainted now, and at least these people all knew who Linley was.

“I’ve already arranged residences for everyone.” The three- eyed commander then laughed. “Everyone, you can choose any of the residences nearby. This place is fairly close to the banks of the Stellar River. Once the ﬁnal battle begins, all of you commanders will be able to easily enter the battle.”

No one stood on ceremony; they each selected a residence and moved in, quietly awaiting the ﬁnal battle.

This was the situation on the side of the Divine Darkness Plane, and the side of the Divine Light Plane had its own gathering as well. However, of the Paragons belonging to the Divine Light Plane, only Magnus appeared; as for Bayer, he didn’t participate in the gathering. “Mr. Magnus.” All of the commanders, over the course of this gathering, greeted Magnus in a very warm, friendly manner, unconsciously acting in a meek, humble manner.

Although they were commanders and very arrogant, in the face of a Paragon…it was very natural for them to act like this. They felt like commoners meeting an emperor. Although the commoner might be arrogant, they would naturally grow modest in this situation. And this sort of modesty…didn’t make them feel ashamed, because it was only appropriate.

For example, if one knelt upon seeing a Sovereign; this was something which their subconscious told them was only proper.

The reception Magnus received in his camp was completely opposite from the one Linley received in his.

But Magnus couldn’t care less about these people; he too went into a corner, and by his side was Oman, Chegwin, and Ramson. “Everyone, are there any formidable experts on the side of the Divine Darkness Plane whom we need to be aware of? If you know of any, speak up and let us mentally prepare for them.” A white-browed, white-haired youth spoke out.

Immediately, all of the commanders began to list out some names, with the likes of Reisgem and Bebe being discussed.

“We encountered an expert who should be a Paragon.” Oman said. “He is a Paragon of Fire! He belongs to the enemy camp, but his name…we aren’t sure. All we know is that he has crimson eyebrows!”

The commanders immediately all fell silent. Compared to a Paragon, neither Reisgem nor Bebe were even as remotely as threatening.

“I have a name!” Hemmers said loudly. “I suspect he, too, is a Paragon!”

These words caused everyone to look towards Hemmers. Everyone knew who Hemmers was; given Hemmers’ strength, his words should be true.

“This person is a member of the Azure Dragon clan, of the Four Divine Beasts clan. His power is very bizarre; at ﬁrst, he was very weak, but afterwards, he grew to be even stronger than me. He’s made vast improvements over just a few centuries, and he said that he has trained for less than three thousand years. I don’t dare believe it, but one thing is certain; his power is greater than mine!” Hemmers said unhappily. “I suspect that he has already reached the level of Paragon!”

Instantly, a unison of laughter.

Everyone knew that Hemmers was a thick-headed fellow who wasn’t very clever. Hearing Hemmers’ words, however, they all laughed hard.

“Hemmers, less than three thousand years, and a Paragon, you say? If he became a Paragon in less than three thousand years, then the rest of us no longer have any face to stay here. Haha.” Clearly, not a single member of these experts believed him.

“Hemmers, don’t believe this person’s lies.” The commanders didn’t believe it at all.

“That expert of the Azure Dragon clan, ‘Gislason’? He’s only on par with us; how could they have a Paragon? If they did, they wouldn’t have been abused to such an extent by the eight great clans.”

The discussion made it clear that no one believed Hemmers.

“Impossible!”

Magnus, seated in the corner of the room, said slowly, “Become a Paragon in less than three thousand years? Absolutely impossible! Forget about three thousand years; even thirty thousand years or three hundred thousand years is far too short for someone to reach the Paragon level! To reach the level of Paragon in under a million years is something which isn’t possible.” Magnus, as a Paragon himself, was an authoritative source.

“Can it be that I, Hemmers, would lie to you!” Hemmers was furious. Steam came from his nostrils, and his eyes turned absolutely round, like a pair of copper gongs as he stared at the others. These commanders unconsciously began to lower the volume of their laughter. They still truly did not wish to irritate this fellow, Hemmers.”

“If you don’t want to listen, then don’t. When you die, don’t blame me.” Hemmers snorted, then sat down, grabbing a roasted leg of meat on the table and chewing it with large bites.

The Divine Light Plane’s camp and the Divine Darkness Plane’s camp were both waiting quietly at each end of the stellar River. They were awaiting the arrival of the ﬁnal battle. Compared to the commanders, though, it was actually the soldiers who were the most eager!

The mortality rates amongst soldiers in the Planar Battleﬁeld was simply too high. These soldiers all wanted to earn military merits and perhaps trade for Sovereign’s Might. And many of these soldiers…had lived for far too long. They wanted to experience the legendary, truly terrifying…Planar War! Thus, they allowed their divine clones to come up. They were willing to sacriﬁce a divine clone, so as to experience the legendary Planar Wars for themselves.

Was this foolishness or insanity?

Hard to say. But after a Deity had been alive for countless years and no longer had any emotional attachments, they were capable of doing anything.

The Planar Wars were savage, crazed battles to begin with!

The Divine Darkness Plane’s camp, where the commanders lived. Linley’s group was living within their courtyard.

Reisgem and Bebe were seated across from each other, chatting casually.

Suddenly…

“Rumble…” A terrifyingly powerful rumble ﬁlled the skies. It was as though an energy ripple capable of causing the heavens to collapse and the earth to shatter was wildly spreading in every direction.

“Whooooooosh.”

The buildings on each side of the Stellar River, when encountering this energy ripple, were instantly converted into dust, revealing the soldiers and commanders within. In almost the same instant, the countless soldiers and many commanders on each side of the Stellar River turned to look towards the ‘Stellar Corridors’.

This vast sea of people all stared towards the Stellar Corridors. Linley stared into the distance, only to see the two corridors of the Stellar Sea emit a rainbow aura. This aura rose to the skies, causing the space above to tremble. In this instant, the two corridors of the Stellar River were more eye-catching than they ever had been.

“The ﬁnal battle is ﬁnally about to begin!” Linley, seeing this, couldn’t help but murmur to himself.

According to the rules of the Planar Wars, after a thousand years passed, the Stellar Corridors would explode forth with a rainbow aura that would cause the world to tremble. This was the sign that the ﬁnal battle was to commence! According to some legends, this was designed by Sovereigns, but according to other legends, it was designed by the Overgods. But one thing was for certain…

The ﬁnal battle was beginning!

There was no uniﬁed deployment, nor was there any hesitation. “Kill!” A cacophony of bellows shook the heavens.

The soldiers who had been waiting this entire time on each side of the Stellar Corridors immediately ﬂooded into the corridors, charging towards the opposite side. As for the soldiers of Divine Light Plane’s camp, they didn’t hesitate either, also ﬂooding into the Stellar Corridors and attacking their foes.

“Haha…the battle has begun!” Reisgem laughed loudly. “Let’s head out!”

“Move out!” Bebe called in jubilation as well.

Linley’s group of four moved lightning-fast towards the Stellar Corridor’s opposite side.

The various commanders didn’t need to be organized into squads; they all moved as they pleased. As for the soldiers of the military camps, they immediately formed into squads and then, like a long, sinuous dragon, had begun to wind their way through and ﬂood through the corridors. The mission for each camp was arranged during the previous gathering.

The slaughtering instantly began!

The dreamy Stellar River’s two Stellar Corridors were now both emanating a rainbow glow, making it appear even more illusory and dreamlike. But the two sides on the Light camp and the Darkness camp were beginning to slaughter and butcher each other in the two corridors.

Linley, Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom stood at the sides of the Stellar Corridor.

“It really is madness.” Linley was watching.

The air above the Stellar River was ﬁlled from top to bottom with countless soldiers, with each unit numbering in the thousands. They collectively launched material attacks or soul attacks against each other, unleashing their most powerful attacks towards the enemies in front of them. These long- distance attacks went on for only a few instants, and then, the two massive armies, like a pair of behemoths, clashed into each other. The chaotic battle had begun!

Blood ﬂew everywhere, divine sparks rolled out, and badges descended.

A battle that was utterly crazed!

“According to the rules of the Planar Wars, if one side wins the battle within both corridors, that is considered a victory. If they only win in one corridor, it is considered a draw.” Reisgem’s eyes were shining. “Haha, Linley, let’s not hesitate. The other commanders have already charged out!”

Linley personally witnessed one white badge and black badge fall after another. Some soldiers, with a single swipe, were able to acquire ten or twenty soldier badges. In this sort of wild slaughter, accumulating military rewards really was quite quick. But it was also dangerous and crazed.

“Let’s go!” Linley’s group of four charged into the Stellar Corridor as well, merging into the crazed ﬂood. Behind them was an endless stream of soldiers, as well as the various commanders who had charged in as well.

Chapter 58, Linley’s Power

The two corridors of the Stellar River. Rainbow light surged forth from them, ﬁlling the skies.

The soldiers belonging to the camp of the Divine Darkness Plane and the camp of the Divine Light Plane were now battling each other in savage earnest. If one stared into the skies, one would see how, at the two sides of the Stellar Corridors, one squad after another was ﬂooding like dragons into the Stellar Corridors. The Stellar Corridor was a meat grinder. A meat grinder for Highgods!

In this wild battle, there was no way for a thousand men or more to move in unison. The only option was to use divine sense to organize, and make squads of a hundred soldiers act together.

Currently, Linley’s group of four was there as well.

In the sea of tens of thousands of ﬁgures, Linley’s group of four was very unremarkable, but some enemies still noticed them.

“Soul attacks! The target, those eleven who are thirty meters ahead of us!” The captain of this squad of a hundred soldiers gave the order through divine sense, and instantly, the eighty two remaining survivors of the squad collectively launched soul attacks. Those translucent soul attacks ﬂew out like dozens of white knives towards the eleven people in Linley’s area.

Reisgem just chuckled.

“They are looking for death!” Reisgem’s forehead suddenly emanated a violet light.

The violet light suddenly rippled out, striking towards that hundred-man squad. However, there were simply too many people packed in too densely nearby, and so Reisgem’s attack even affected two soldiers on their own side, as well as ﬁfty three enemy soldiers. That was just half of an enemy squad; it was that hundred man squad. From this, one could tell how tightly clustered the combatants were.

This single attack struck ﬁfty ﬁve people, ﬁfty three of whom immediately died and only two of whom survived.

Fifty three badges immediately fell.

“Badges!” Immediately, quite a few of the nearby soldiers began to ﬁght over them, and in the blink of an eye, all of them were taken. Everywhere throughout the battleﬁeld, badges were constantly falling, with the fall of each badge signifying a person’s death.

“Not good. Quick, let’s go.” The captain was so frightened, his face changed, and he hurriedly led his squad to ﬂee in another direction.

“Pretty powerful.” Bebe laughed. “Most of those weren’t even at the Seven Star Fiend level. Of course killing them is utterly simplicity. The power of that attack of mine wasn’t that great; it was just meant for a group assault.” Reisgem said disdainfully. “Everyone, watch carefully. See who are the commanders! We can’t just stand here. We will draw attention to us. Just now, that was a single hundred-man squad. After we attract attention, most likely it will be a group of hundred-man squads who will join forces against us.”

Reisgem was very experienced. He knew that they couldn’t stay in one place for long.

“Follow me.” Linley said.

When Linley spoke, Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom didn’t argue at all, immediately following by Linley’s side as they advanced.

Although the Stellar Corridor was ﬁlled with blood and savagery, Linley seemed to be strolling through a garden as he walked through it. Any squads that charged towards him suffered a powerful repulsive force that would push them aside.

“Reisgem, your Amethyst Space is really quite powerful.” A nearby laugh rang out.

Linley’s group turned to look. The speaker was Woodridge, who today was dressed in a long, dark golden robe. Woodbridge clearly moved through the chaotic battle with ease. He glanced sideways at Linley. “Reisgem. Take care of your friends. This place is quite dangerous! A Seven Star Fiend will die, just like that.”

After speaking, Woodridge turned into a blur and disappeared into the distance.

Woodridge moved through the chaotic battle like an agile ﬁsh in water.

“This Woodridge…what sort of vision does he have? He didn’t even notice that it was you, Boss, who set up the Gravitational Space.” Bebe snorted. “Don’t mind him.” Linley stared to the front. “Up ahead is the center of the Stellar Corridor. This is the place where the battle is the most savage. I’ve found quite a few enemy commanders up ahead already. Let’s go.” Linley was as calm as ever. One’s mental fortitude was linked to one’s strength.

The weak would be nervous and edgy, advancing carefully. For example, those ordinary soldiers; they could die at any moment.

But for the strong, such as Woodbridge, they felt relaxed and at ease. As long as they were careful not to draw too much attention and wary of enemy commanders, and as long as they weren’t attacked by massive groups, they would be ﬁne.

And, for someone on Linley’s level, it was as though he was going out for a walk.

“Linley, look up ahead!” Reisgem suddenly called out in surprise. Linley turned his gaze over. Several kilometers away, he saw a black-robed man actually attract a joint attack from more than a thousand soldiers from the Divine Light Realm’s camp. The combined soul attack thundered down, and there were some who used their innate divine abilities as well. The combined attack of over a thousand ﬁgures rained down, and although the black-robed ﬁgure dodged quickly, he was still hit by over a hundred attacks.

The impact on him wasn’t that great…but right afterwards, the thousand-plus soldiers launched a wave of material attacks.

“Rumble…” This group attack from more than a thousand Six Star Fiend level experts, along with some Seven Star Fiends, was like a tempest of annihilation as it swept towards the black-robed man. The black-robed man immediately transformed into dust, and some of the ‘innocent’ surrounding bystanders were reduced to ash as well.

A divine spark, a black necklace, an interspatial ring, and a blood-red badge fell down.

Linley, watching this from afar, secretly shook his head.

“This fellow Naboth [Na’bo’te] truly is unlucky.” Reisgem snickered mentally towards Linley and the other two. “He deﬁnitely must have drawn the attention of the enemies, but Naboth himself didn’t realize it. Given how many people are on the side of the Divine Light Plane, it was easy to muster ten squads of a hundred men to launch a joint attack against him. In just two strikes, one spiritual, the other material, he was annihilated! Although he had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, it was of no use.”

Soul attacks and material attacks were all extremely fast.

Generally speaking, no matter how fast most commanders were, they were far from being as fast as a soul attack or a material attack. They would only be able to dodge one or two meters. Only Highgod Paragons, who were able to dodge several dozen meters in a single movement, and even cause space to twist and distort, were unafraid of group attacks.

“It’s quite dangerous for commanders in the battle as well.” Bebe said with a sigh. Whether in the Netherworld or in the Infernal Realm, it was quite hard for a thousand Six Star Fiends to be summoned to one event and launch an attack. But here, in this battle, everyone was a Highgod, and so it was quite easy to link up a thousand soldiers to launch a joint attack. Thus…one couldn’t be too impressive. If you attracted attention, you had to immediately ﬂee!

“Forget about others.” Linley’s gaze was locked on someone in the distance. “I found an excellent target!”

“Oh?” Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom looked over as well.

“Them!” Reisgem’s eyes lit up, and a savage look ﬂashed through them. “This time, we can’t let them escape!”

“Kill them all!” Bebe stared furiously at them as well.

Roughly three kilometers away from them, three ﬁgures were chasing at high speed after a gray-robed ﬁgure. Two of them were familiar ﬁgures; one was a golden-robed ‘Oman’, while the other was a violet-robed ‘Chegwin’. The person by their side was Ramson, who had joined with them.

Although Ramson was a commander who controlled a military camp, when the savage battle began, the hundred-man squads would move by themselves. There wasn’t much point for their commander to stay with them. He had one of his subordinates take charge of the squads, while he himself went with his two friends to go hunt and kill enemy commanders. Oman’s three-person team was very conﬁdent in their power.

“Haha, you want to run?” Ramsom ﬂew over at high speed.

“Swish!” A golden light shot out from Ramson’s ﬁnger, and space instantly tore apart as the light shot towards the ﬂeeing gray-robed ﬁgure. “BANG!” The gray-robed ﬁgure’s body instantly erupted with a black light, and he launched a vicious return punch against that golden light before continuing to ﬂee.

But in the instant he had paused to strike back, Oman and Chegwin had surrounded him.

“You won’t be able to escape!” Oman laughed loudly, his body blazing with a white aura as his spiked mace smashed down towards the gray-robed man.

“Clang!” The gray-robed man raised his arms together, smashing head on with his two arms against the spiked mace.

But immediately afterwards, the spikes atop the mace shot out towards the gray-robed man’s skull. With a metallic clanging sound, they drove into the gray-robed man’s face, but didn’t strike a lethal blow.

“Bang!” A golden light then pierced through the gray-robed man’s head.

Ramson stretched his hand out, and the golden light ﬂew back to his hand. This was an ancient, unadorned spear which was covered with strange magical runes. “Haha, getting badges here is too fast. This is the third.” Ramson stretched his hand out and snatched the blood-red badge, while the nearby Oman said very conﬁdently, “Ramson, who can stop the three of us united?”

“Oman, our old friend is coming.” Chegwin sent mentally with a soft laugh.

Oman and Ramson instantly followed Chegwin’s gaze, only to see four ﬁgures ﬂy over, with Linley at the lead.

“That Linley didn’t die?” Oman was shocked.

“Haha…” Oman’s gaze turned savage. “It’s good that he didn’t die! The last two times, we weren’t able to kill him. This time, I’ll dispose of him!”

“Hand that Reihom fellow to me. Last time, I didn’t kill him. This time, we should end it.” Chegwin stared at the distant Reihom while sending mentally, “Ramson, you hurry up and leave. Go ﬁnd Mr. Magnus. If you encounter Bebe, you will die. Of the four, Reisgem is the hardest to deal with. Ask Mr. Magnus to come; only he can deal with Reisgem.”

“Alright.” Ramson knew that Bebe was a Godeater Rat, and didn’t try to push it.

But just as Ramson turned to leave!

“There is no need to run!” A cold voice instantly echoed in their minds.

Ramson, Oman, and Chegwin stared in astonishment up in front. Linley, who had been ﬂying alongside Reisgem, Reihom, and Bebe, suddenly sped up dramatically. “Whoosh!” Like a gust of wind, he moved through the densely clustered groups of people in the Stellar Corridor like a blur. Linley had arrived before the three of them!

“This…” Oman and the other two were stunned. Reisgem and the other two were still far away, but Linley had already arrived. Linley’s speed was so terrifying…it was far beyond what they could endure.

Oman and the other two instantly thought back to what Hemmers had told them at the meeting. Hemmers was clearly referring to this expert of the Azure Dragon clan.

“Could it be him?” Oman’s group of three didn’t dare believe it, but at the same time, the three of them frantically used their supreme techniques!

“Rumble…”

Linley’s ﬁst swept out, and it was as though the universe was pressing down upon them. 108 rays of black light swept out and surrounded them, sucking them in as a terrifyingly strong compressive force instantly reduced the speed of these commanders a thousandfold. They could only watch as Linley’s ﬁst swept towards them, unable to block at all.

“BANG!” The ﬁst smashed into Oman’s head.

Oman’s body trembled slightly. From the surface, it seemed as though he wasn’t injured at all, but…the insides of his head had already been shaken into pulp. A gold badge fell out from his body, while at the same time, his soul-protecting Sovereign artifact fell out as well.

“Linley, stay your hand.” A rebuking bark rang out in Linley’s mind.

“Magnus?” Linley’s lips curved upwards.

“Halt!” Magnus was frantic.

“Rumble…” Linley’s ﬁst ground down inexorably. In the instant after he killed Oman, he also swept his arm towards the nearby Chegwin and Ramson. These two, also bound by that terrifying compressive force, weren’t able to resist at all.

Ramson’s body immediately collapsed lifelessly, and a gold badge fell out from his body.

As for Chegwin, his body suddenly trembled and he retreated explosively, staring at Linley in amazement. “He…how can he be so strong?!” Just now, when he had suffered that compressive power, he had the feeling that he couldn’t even resist. This caused Chegwin to feel tremendous terror.

“You live up to being someone reputed to have two protective Sovereign artifacts. Killing you really is tough.” Linley glanced at the retreating Chegwin, then collected the two gold badges.

“Boss!” Only now did Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom arrive.

“We have two badges.” Linley turned and smiled towards Bebe.

“Boss, careful.” Bebe suddenly warned mentally.

Linley turned, only to see a bewildering blur advance at high speed, so fast that it was on par with Linley’s earlier movements. It was the infuriated Magnus! Magnus landed next to Ramson’s body, cradling it in his arms, so furious that the muscles on his face were twitching.

Magnus didn’t care that Oman had died.

But Ramson, that was his good friend! A true friend!

Magnus raised his head, staring coldly at Linley. In a low voice, he said, “Just now…I told you to stay your hand!”

Linley stared back calmly at Magnus. In a gentle voice, he responded, “If I want to kill someone…you are unable to stop me!”

Chapter 59, The Duel Above the Stellar River

Those who became Paragons were all incomparable geniuses ﬁlled with tremendous willpower. They, who stood at the top, were accustomed to the respect and reverence of others. Even when they met a Sovereign, they didn’t have to kneel; they only had to bow slightly. One could imagine how much lofty arrogance ﬁlled their hearts.

“If I want to kill someone…you are unable to stop me!”

Linley’s calm words and the look in his eyes when he spoke caused Magnus, already infuriated by the death of his friend, to grow so angry that his eyes turned crimson.

Magnus released Ramson’s corpse, slowly standing up and staring coldly at Linley.

Linley didn’t fear him at all, looking back calmly at Magnus. “Rumble…” Thunder began to echo unceasingly around them. The battle was continuing to progress, and the soldiers of the Divine Darkness Plane and Divine Light Plane were butchering each other in methodical fashion. Blood splattered everywhere, and Highgod sparks rained everywhere as one

badge after another was seized by survivors. This was how wild and savage the Stellar Corridor was.

But amidst this savagery, Linley and Magnus stood there, staring at each other, not moving at all.

It seemed as though the battles of thousands of soldiers around them, to them, was nothing more than the air.

“The target is that unmoving, white-robed ﬁgure. Soul attack!” A hundred-man squad clearly noticed Magnus, and as the captain gave the order through divine sense, instantly, the seventy ﬁve survivors of the squad instantly emitted all sorts of translucent attacks, instantly shooting them towards Magnus!

Magnus, who had been staring angrily at Linley, couldn’t help but turn to look back.

“Hmph!” Magnus let out a low snort, his gaze turning cold.

Magnus’ cold gaze swept out like a blurry sword light, creating more than a hundred white ‘arrows’ which shot out. “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” They instantly crossed the skies, striking against those soul attacks. While destroying the soul attacks, the translucent arrows didn’t slow down at all as they dove into the bodies of the members of that hundred-man squad, whose eyes became ﬁlled with terror.

And then, silence.

Seventy ﬁve corpses fell from the skies, their divine sparks and badges falling as well.

A single glance had killed seventy ﬁve Highgods!

“How is that possible?” Some soldiers noticed this, and they were so terriﬁed their faces changed. But…the battle at the Stellar Corridor was simply too chaotic. Only a few dozen people noticed Magnus display his might, with the rest not noticing at all. After all, people were dying constantly throughout the corridor. No one would notice if seventy ﬁve people suddenly died at once.

“Boss.” Bebe and the others were rather worried as well.

“Don’t worry. You all step back for now.” Linley sent mentally. “Against Magnus, although I’m not completely certain of victory, I deﬁnitely won’t lose!”

“Linley, this Magnus is a Paragon, after all. Don’t be careless. In addition, he, too, has Sovereign artifacts.” Reisgem sent mentally. As he spoke, he, Bebe, and Reihom all retreated, because they also knew…that once Linley and Magnus began to ﬁght, the scene would be completely different from the one where Linley and Blueﬁre sparred.

When two Paragon experts battled each other, the slightest backlash from their attacks could threaten the lives of ordinary commanders. At present, Linley and Magnus paid no attention to any others. It was as though this entire world only contained the two of them!

Magnus stared at Linley. In a low voice, he said, “You actually didn’t die!”

“What, do you regret it?” Linley smiled calmly, a hint of mockery in his smile.

“I don’t regret it.” Magnus had already regained his clarity of mind. “Because I know that although you didn’t die last time, this time, you will.”

“You are quite conﬁdent.” Linley looked at Magnus, speaking as he would to an equal. “But last time, you were also quite conﬁdent that after I suffered your most powerful attack, I would deﬁnitely die. But the real result? Last time, I destroyed your conﬁdence. This time…I’ll break it again!”

Magnus’ face grew sinister.

“Haha…” Magnus suddenly began to laugh coldly. “Anyone can engage in braggadocio! Today, I will let you know the difference between you and a Paragon.” Magnus didn’t actually believe that Linley had become a Paragon, because last time, when he had sparred with Linley, he could tell…that Linley was still quite far off from the Paragon level.

Ordinary commanders, in front of a Paragon, would deﬁnitely perish.

“Bang!” While laughing, Magnus began to move. His speed instantly rose to the limit, and he moved like a dreamlike blur, throwing himself towards Linley. At the same time, Magnus’ right hand, covered by a black glove, transformed into a claw, and he clawed at Linley’s head. “Hiss…crackle…” Multiple holes in space constantly exploded forth.

When the claw struck out, it was as though space had become very weak. “You think too highly of yourself!” An explosive roar echoed forth in the Stellar Corridor.

“BANG!”

A black sword light ﬂashed out, piercing directly into Magnus’ palm. The universe seemed to tremble, while Magnus himself was unable to prevent himself from being knocked backwards. In the space where the exchange of blows had taken place, multiple black, gaping spatial chasms had appeared, and the terrifying spatial chasms were like monsters, devouring dozens of nearby soldiers before vanishing.

“A spatial rift? How could a spatial rift be so large?” The formerly savage soldiers, especially the ones around Linley and Magnus, ﬁnally understood that two supreme experts were present.

But that was of no use to them. After all, the soldiers behind them on both the sides of the Divine Darkness Plane and the Divine Light plane continued to push forward, throwing themselves against their enemies in battle!

“You…you…” Magnus stared in amazement at Linley. “You became a Paragon?”

“You truly think too highly of yourself!” Linley couldn’t help but chuckle.

Given Linley’s control over the world, he could clearly sense that Magnus, just now, hadn’t used Sovereign power when attacking! A Paragon, even one who didn’t use Sovereign power, was generally able to easily slaughter a commander. But…to act in such a way against Linley was indeed a bit too arrogant.

“You truly have become a Paragon?” Magnus didn’t dare believe it…but the power which Linley had just displayed was real.

“I need to thank you for that full-force attack you launched back then.” Linley let out a soft laugh. “If you hadn’t wanted to kill me, causing me to fall into a life-and-death situation, I probably wouldn’t have made such a large advance.” Linley didn’t admit that he had become a Paragon, but upon hearing Linley’s words, Magnus took it for admission.

“No wonder you are so arrogant. So you have become a Paragon.” Magnus’ face sank. “But Linley, even though you are a Paragon, I, Magnus, will teach you today…that you aren’t qualiﬁed to kill my friends!”

When his words were spoken, Magnus moved once more.

“Rumble…”

In the blink of an eye, Linley saw a black ﬁst cover his entire ﬁeld of vision, and a powerful blast of Fate-type Sovereign power. It seemed as though the entire surrounding space was compressing him, and this punch seemed to contain enough power to destroy the world. It was unstoppable!

“Not using soul attacks, but a material attack?” Linley didn’t hesitate at all, immediately launching a backhanded sword stab with full strength.

“Raaaaaaaargh…” 108 rays of black light shot out like dragons from Mirage, swallowing Magnus within them. In that instant, Magnus felt as though he heard the roar of a dragon, and then felt a powerful, oppressive compression. This compressive force caused even his attacks to be affected.

The sword of Linley. The ﬁst of Magnus!

They collided!

“Thud…” It was a deep sound, like a drum being struck.

Space instantly shattered. Hundreds of spatial rifts appeared, and that Sovereign power, infused with the power of Will, washed out in every direction. This burst of energy was infused with the power of Will, and like sharp arrows, it instantly pierced through the bodies of each of the surrounding soldiers. A hundred soldiers who were fairly close to Linley and Magnus were doomed. Their bodies instantly transformed into dust! As for some of the soldiers behind them, they were either pierced through the chest or the legs. Some unlucky ones were pierced through the head. Unfortunately, the energy rays was simply too vicious and too dense.

In the blink of an eye, within a circumference of a hundred meters, hundreds of corpses fell from the skies.

“What…what is this?” The formerly savagely battling soldiers here were completely stunned. They couldn’t help but lower their weapons, turning to stare and see what exactly had caused so many people to die simultaneously. There were no living people in the area where Linley and Magnus were battling.

In the Stellar Corridor, this was a rare, empty area. This caused the soldiers to instantly notice the two people battling energetically within.

“Bang!” “Bang!” Two exceedingly, unspeakably fast blurs collided time and time again, and space repeatedly shattered as spatial tears were created. The backlash from the Sovereign power they used caused quite a few soldiers to die in succession.

“Retreat, quick, retreat!” The terriﬁed soldiers couldn’t help but all retreat frantically, pulling far away from Linley and Magnus.

“What terrifying speed!” The soldiers felt their hearts tremble. “Can it be that they are…”

These soldiers could be considered experts in the Infernal Realm or the Netherworld, and they were all highly experienced. But the incredible effects generated by Linley and Magnus’ blows still caused them to feel terriﬁed. Even the remnant energy could effortlessly kill Six Star Fiends and Seven Star Fiends? What sort of power was this?

The space of the Planar Battleﬁeld…actually had more than a hundred giant spatial rifts torn open? What level of attacks were being used?

Stupeﬁed. Scared silly!

There were two corridors in the Stellar River, and the two corridors engaged in battle simultaneously. The goal was to defeat the opponents and to reach the opposite shore; that was a sign of victory. If victory was gained in both corridors, one side of the Planar War would be considered victorious. If victory was gained in one corridor but lost in the other, it was a draw.

But right now, battle between Linley and Magnus caused simply too much chaos.

They occasionally rose into the skies, and then they would descend, moving at frightful speeds.

Nobody dared to go within a thousand meters of them! And so, at the center of one of the two Stellar Corridors, an empty ﬁeld naturally was formed. This forced a halt to the battle on this Stellar Corridor, as quite a few soldiers and commanders focused on the duel of peak experts here.

“Them? Magnus…and that friend of Reisgem’s?” The three- eyed commander’s face changed.

Quite a few commanders had noticed the distant disturbance.

“How is that possible? It’s that person called Linley?” Woodridge also stared, stunned, at the terrifying scene of the distant battle between Linley and Magnus. “Magnus and Linley, they are ﬁghting to a standstill?” Watching the world- shattering battle going on in the distance, Woodridge didn’t dare believe that the Linley whom he had looked down upon was actually able to ﬁght a Paragon to a standstill. Shaking his head vigorously, Woodridge still didn’t dare believe what he was seeing.

“Linley?” Although those people on the side of the Divine Darkness Plane had never paid Linley any attention, most of them knew Linley’s name. Now that they saw that it was Linley who was causing this huge disturbance, they couldn’t help but feel shocked.

“This Linley is too terrifying.”

Chegwin, the only one who had survived in his squad which fought for the Divine Light Plane, still felt terror in his heart.

“Who is this?” Quite a few commanders on the side of the Divine Light Plane didn’t recognize Linley.

“Haha…I told you all long ago that he is very powerful, possibly a Paragon.” Hemmers stared at the distant battle. He couldn’t help but start to laugh loudly. “None of you believed me! Haha…do you see it? Do you see it?!”

Of the two Stellar Corridors, the battle on one of them had been forced to grind to a halt.

“Quick, hurry up and change directions. Move to support the other corridor! Seize the opportunity to ﬁrst achieve victory in the other corridor!” Some commanders reacted more quickly; knowing that the battle at this corridor was halted, they immediately arranged for their forces to go assist the other corridor instead. They’d ﬁrst gain victory in that corridor, then talk.

Linley and Magnus continued to battle in the center of the Stellar River. As they continued, the nearby soldiers of both sides who had disposed of their opponents all temporarily paused their battling.

No one dared to approach Linley or Magnus.

Sovereign power infused with the power of Will…when it washed out, even commanders wouldn’t dare to easily approach it. Who, then, would?

For a time, countless soldiers and many commanders watched this terrifying battle in amazement. For many of them, only today did they understand how terrifying Paragons were!

“WHAP!”

The commanders and soldiers only saw blurred ﬁgures move. One of the two rose into the heavens, while the other stood there on the ground; the two split apart. Magnus hovered there, high up in the air, a hint of blood at the corner of his lips. Almost immediately, however, he recovered.

And on the ground stood an expert whose entire body was covered with azure-golden scales, and who had spikes emerging from his back – Linley! Linley’s dark golden eyes stared upwards. “Magnus…you, a Paragon of Fate, want to compete against me in material attacks? You aren’t quite up to it!”

Chapter 60, The Most Powerful Technique!

The countless soldiers on the Stellar Corridor, along with some of the commanders, were stunned as they watched this battle.

Human wave attacks might be useful against ordinary commanders, but against Paragons…it was useless. The Paragons battled there, in the center of the corridor, and the surrounding soldiers had no choice but to stop ﬁghting and not even dare draw within a thousand meters.

“The Sovereign power doesn’t match up.” Linley shook his head. Just now, although they had only battled brieﬂy, Linley hadn’t Dragonformed at the beginning. But the non- transformed Linley was actually at a disadvantage when ﬁghting Magnus! Magnus used Fate-type Sovereign’s Might which was very effective, while Linley was only able to use Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might.

He was weaker in this aspect, and so even though he used his supreme technique of spatial binding, he was still at a disadvantage.

Linley was forced to Dragonform!

Upon Dragonforming, Linley’s attack power instantly jumped, allowing him to actually press down against his foe using material attacks.

“Last time, when I sparred with Leylin, I didn’t Dragonform. After Dragonforming, things are exactly as I thought they would be.”

The power of Will was very special.

As long as Linley applied his Will, his power would increase dramatically. The defensiveness of his draconic scales and his attacks all increased; the power of his Will had the power to transform something rotting into something magical. Paragons didn’t need Sovereign artifacts to easily defeat commanders who had Sovereign artifacts. “To kill a Paragon truly is hard.” Linley raised his head, looking up at Magnus.

Magnus didn’t have a defensive Sovereign artifact, but the protective barrier formed from pure Sovereign power, when infused with his Paragon’s Will, made it so that Linley’s draconic tail, ﬁsts, and legs were unable to injure him heavily.

Paragons had no weaknesses. This wasn’t just talk!

Defenses and attacks; they were exceedingly strong in all aspects, even without Sovereign artifacts!

“Swoosh!” Linley’s body moved like a blur, rising to the skies until he stood level with Magnus. The two stared at each other.

The two mighty experts hovered there in the air.

“Members of the Azure Dragon clan, after Dragonforming, truly do increase in power greatly!” Magnus laughed clearly. “However, don’t be smug. That was just the beginning!” After speaking, Magnus seemed to transformed into the sun, emitting blurry rays of light in every direction as a powerful aura began to spread out.

As for the midair Linley, his draconic tail swayed behind him slightly as he stared at his opponent, not nervous at all.

Magnus stretched his hands out, and instantly, around him appeared a man-sized globe of light. This enormous globe of light contained within it a brilliant, crystalline lotus ﬂower. Above the lotus ﬂower, there even seemed to be some mist swirling. The Stellar Corridor glowed with rainbow light which shot upwards, making it seem all the more beautiful.

“You really are going all out!” Linley let out a chuckle.

Last time, Magnus had used this same attack and had nearly killed Linley, but Linley had not only escaped from death, he had also transformed. Still, that time, the light globe was only ﬁst-sized, while this time, it was man-sized! Actually, it was the exact same technique as last time; only, there was a huge difference in how much spiritual energy was being used up!

Actually…this man-sized light globe could be treated as hundreds of the ﬁst-sized light globes!

“Hmph!”

Magnus’ gaze grew cold, and the enormous light globe hovering in front of his chest suddenly shot towards Linley.

“Haha…” Linley just laughed loudly. His body seemed to transform into a human-shaped porcupine, as from within shot out a translucent sword ripple. Instantly, countless sword ripples shot out which simultaneously struck against that two- meter tall globe of light.

One advanced, the other marched forward. The countless sword ripples charged against the light globe.

“Bang!” The surface of the light globe cracked, revealing that blooming, translucent lotus ﬂower. For a moment, the lotus ﬂower seemed to be a sculpture of ice.

The countless translucent sword ripples shot towards the translucent lotus ﬂower!

“Swish!” The enormous lotus ﬂower continued to shoot towards Linley while constantly swiveling, using up one sword ripple after another, but at the same time…the lotus ﬂower was being used up, and it was physically shrinking.

“Hrm?” Magnus’ face changed. “What a powerful soul attack!”

Linley’s Voidwave Sword ripples caused Magnus to be astonished.

In a short period of time, the lotus ﬂower actually shrank dramatically.

Actually, it wasn’t strange. Even after having fused four types of profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, Linley’s understanding regarding profound mysteries which impacted soul attacks was still much weaker than this attack of Magnus’. Only, Linley’s spiritual energy was ten times greater than even when he used Sovereign power, and the power of his Will was also nearly ten times greater than Paragons. These two aspects made it so that Linley’s soul attack wasn’t much weaker than Magnus’.

“Hmph.” Magnus willed it, and instantly, the dramatically shrinking lotus ﬂower began to swivel. One ﬂower petal after another separated, transforming into more than ten lines that shot towards Linley. Linley’s Voidwave Sword ripples were only able to block part of them; the rest of the lotus petals still shot into Linley’s body.

“Magnus, this supreme attack of yours is only as strong as this?” Linley looked at Magnus.

“How can it be like this?” Magnus was secretly shocked. “Even if Linley was able to endure it, it shouldn’t be as though nothing had happened to him.”

Indeed, Linley didn’t care at all, because his soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, the ‘Coiling Dragon ring’, had more than two hundred years ago been completely repaired! Ever since his soul mutation, Linley had been using spiritual energy to repair it at an astonishing rate, and less than ten years after his soul mutation, the Coiling Dragon ring had been completely repaired.

With a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, would he fear a small attack like this?

“Haha, Magnus, so that’s all you are capable of.” Linley laughed clearly, and his laughter echoed in the air above the Stellar River. “Then it is my turn!”

As the sound echoed in the air, Linley himself wielded Mirage as he charged towards Magnus. In addition, a large number of Voidwave Swords shot out from Linley’s body, shooting towards Magnus.

“Don’t boast. What can you do to me?” Magnus didn’t want to appear weak, and so his laughter echoed forth as well. It must be understood that there were simply too many spectators to this battle. They were commanders and soldiers who came from each of the Divine Planes and Higher Realms. If he lost, then this news would quickly spread across all of the universe. If he appeared weak now, where would he, Magnus, be able to hide his face?

“Whoosh!” Linley’s draconic tail unpredictably lashed out.

“Can’t let him draw close!” Magnus retreated explosively.

As soon as Linley drew near, he would be able to attack from all angles. Even the spikes on his elbows, his draconic tail, and other parts were capable of threatening Magnus.

Although this was slow to describe, in reality, it happened as fast as a spark erupting from a ﬂint. The two supreme experts amongst Deities exchanged multiple blows against each other, clashing multiple times, and each time causing the heavens to shatter and split apart. Even their soul attacks…caused the surrounding soldiers and commanders to be vigilant. Perhaps a single Voidwave Sword ripple of Linley’s might hit them, or a single petal of Magnus’ lotus ﬂowers; they were more than enough to kill them.

Battle was completely halted here in this Stellar Corridor, but the battle on the other side had reached a crescendo in savagery.

“Enemies straight ahead. Launch a joint material attack!”

One hundred-man squad after another launched one joint attack after another. Countless soldiers fell and perished, as though a new epoch had crushed down upon them. Many commander badges fell. Clearly, the Divine Darkness Plane’s side’s forces held the advantage in numbers, and were currently pressing forth to victory.

Ten hundred-man squads launched a material attack!

And then, they retreated, with ten more hundred-man squads moving forward, launching a blast of soul attacks! The soldiers of the Divine Light Plane had been charging forward, but this sequence of arrayed attacks from the forces of Darkness had completely suppressed their spirits.

Once a complete advantage was established, a very simple battle would result.

From the initial stalemate, to a retreat, to total collapse…

Faced with this massive advance and the repeated joint attacks, the forces of the Light alliance were ﬁnally, completely dispersed. Although some of them were courageous, it wasn’t worth it for them to throw away their lives for nothing.

“Haha, we won!” The commanders of the military camps, watching this, laughed loudly.

“This time, our Darkness alliance had a slight advantage in numbers to begin with. In addition, on the other side, those two battling Paragons caused the battle to come to a halt, so I immediately arranged for those soldiers to move here. When they all charged together, given our absolute advantage in numbers, we were able to crush them in one blow. Once the enemies were broken apart, even if some more support came, it was too late.

Soon, the soldiers of the Darkness alliance in this corridor reached the other side, while the survivors of the Light alliance completely retreated.

“Rumble…” The rainbow aura emanating from this Stellar Corridor which rose to the heavens suddenly retracted, then vanished.

The Darkness alliance had won a victory.

“Haha…victory! Victory!” Cries of jubilation. The many soldiers of the Darkness alliance cried out in joy.

“We won!” These military commanders in charge of the battle were also rather excited. “Let’s go. Let’s hurry to the other corridor and keep battling. Perhaps we might make it in time to watch the two Paragons ﬁghting.” The commanders immediately ordered their forces to quickly ﬂood towards the other corridor.

Countless soldiers were watching the battle going on at Linley’s corridor.

“By the looks of it, they are at a standstill. Paragon against Paragon; it’s hard for one to win and the other to lose.” The watchers couldn’t help but have this feeling.

Suddenly…

“Bang!” A powerful explosion ripped out between the two combatants, who quickly separated.

Magnus stood there on the ground, staring at the distant Linley. He said in a clear voice, “Linley, if the two of us keep ﬁghting, we will just be wasting time! Pardon me for not accompanying you in continuing this!” Magnus let out a cold snort, then turned and ﬂew away. Although Magnus had a belly full of anger, he clearly wasn’t able to kill Linley. He also believed that Linley wouldn’t be able to kill him!

Although he was angry and ﬁlled with hatred, Magnus had to admit that Linley was already an expert on his level.

“Wasting time? I don’t feel that way!” Linley’s voice rang out. “Or, are you afraid?”

“Mm?” Magnus, embarrassed and angered, turned his head to stare furiously at Linley.

He was angry at Linley for not understanding the rules; since there could be no result to this battle, they should’ve ended it. But Linley actually used words to keep him here. If he were to leave today, it would mean that he was afraid!

Cold wind blew through the Planar Battleﬁeld. Linley stood there, ramrod straight, his draconic tail swaying. “You know that I am of the Azure Dragon clan! Then prepare to receive…the innate divine ability of my Azure Dragon clan!” Linley said in a bold, clear voice. As soon as his words fell, behind Linley’s body appeared an enormous, coiling Azure Dragon Phantom which was more than ten thousand meters long. The Azure Dragon’s golden eyes stared at Magnus.

Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar!

“Rumble…” A unique energy ripple instantly spread out!

The power of the innate divine ability was linked to spiritual energy as well as the innate azure glow. Now that Linley’s spiritual energy was more than ten times as powerful as when he used Sovereign power, and when combined with a Will that was even mightier than that of a Paragon’s…the power of this innate divine ability of Linley’s could most likely only be surpassed by his ancestor, the Azure Dragon himself!

“Swoosh!” Linley’s speed reached an extreme level as he charged towards Magnus. “Eh?” Magnus’ face changed. He felt as though the ﬂow of time around him had already changed!

He was powerful, but Linley, who used this technique, had a level of spiritual energy and Will that was stronger than him. The effect of his ‘Dragon Roar’ was now on display!

The ﬂow of time changed, but that didn’t mean he was no longer capable of thought.

Magnus still knew that he had to defend himself. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to block in time, so all he could do was…work hard to control his Sovereign power to form a powerful defense!

“Bang!” Linley’s ‘Mirage’ stabbed against Magnus’ head at full force.

“Crackle…” Linley felt a terrifyingly strong blocking force. Although Mirage was just able to break through the skin, it remained impacted by that powerful blocking force. Paragons, even without Sovereign artifacts…still had no ﬂaws. This was not just an empty boast! Magnus, however, was knocked ﬂying backwards by the blow.

“If I can’t kill you, then I will drive you into chaotic space!”

Linley’s gaze turned cold.

“Bang!” Linley’s right leg slashed through the skies, landing on Magnus’ stomach.

He was moving as fast as lightning, and his kick sent Magnus ﬂying upwards like a meteor towards the boundary between the Stellar Corridor and chaotic space. “No!” Magnus ﬁnally recovered from the temporal displacement, but it was too late. He only had enough time for a ﬁnal, furious howl before he was completely enveloped by rainbow colored chaotic space.

It was as though he had been swallowed by the ‘water’.

Magnus thusly disappeared within chaotic space! Silence!

Stillness!

The spectators watching this were all stunned. A Paragon… had been driven away like that?

Linley glanced at the multicolored chaotic space, then turned and walked towards Bebe, returning to human form. Bebe stared at Linley, stunned as well. Linley smiled. “Bebe, let’s go.”

Chapter 61, Gathering Point

The rainbow light above the Stellar River glowed as beautifully as ever, but everyone was silent. They were speechless. As for Linley, he simply walked calmly towards the Darkness alliance’s side, under the gaze of countless experts.

A Paragon…had just been driven into chaotic space!

“He drove a Paragon into chaotic space. He’s of the Azure Dragon clan. His name is Linley!” The surrounding soldiers and commanders all ﬁrmly memorized this scene. The words Linley had exchanged with Magnus had resulted in Linley’s name being revealed. Naturally, these surrounding people all knew it now.

Suddenly…

“Quick, material attacks!” One of the captains belonging to the Darkness alliance suddenly came to his senses, and he hurriedly spoke through divine sense to his allies. “Crackle…” Nearly a hundred rays of brilliant light shot forth from the side of the Darkness alliance, thundering towards the enemy.

“Material attacks, forward!” At almost the same instant, the soldiers on both sides came to their senses. Only now did the soldiers of the Darkness alliance and the Light alliance awaken from the stupor having watched the astonishing battle between two Paragons, and they immediately began to battle again! The countless soldiers of the two sides ﬂooded forward and clashed against each other.

Linley, Bebe, and the other two just stood there amidst the human ﬂood.

There was no longer anyone foolish enough to launch attacks against Linley.

“Boss!” Bebe looked at Linley, incomparably excited. “That was Magnus! Boss, just now, the person you drove into chaotic space was MAGNUS. Someone on the same level as Bayer! Too powerful, haha, too powerful!” Bebe delightedly beamed, his smile so large that his eyes became half-lidded.

Reisgem and Reihom’s faces were covered in smiles as well.

“Reisgem, you should be lacking some military merits, right? Do you need me to help you?” Linley turned his head, looking at Reisgem.

“No need.” Reisgem intentionally let out a snort. “Linley, although I’m a bit weaker compared to you, acquiring enough military merits isn’t too difﬁcult for me. I already acquired a certain number during the previous Planar Wars, and this time, I only need a few more. Reihom, let’s go.” Reisgem and Reihom ﬂew out into the ﬂood of people as well.

People were everywhere, ﬁlling the corridor as they constantly slaughtered each other.

Linley and Bebe were amongst them, but they just watched the distant Reisgem and Reihom. Linley nodded slightly. “Bebe, let’s go. Given Reihom and Reisgem’s strength, unless they encounter a Paragon or an assault by multiple commanders, they won’t be in any danger. Let’s go to the shores of the Stellar River to watch.”

“Alright. Let’s go to the shore.” Bebe chortled and nodded.

Everyone was charging towards the enemy shores…but Linley and Bebe actually turned.

“Linley!”

The commanders of the Darkness plane stared at Linley from afar, sighing mentally. They regretted not having made good use of the earlier gathering to chat with Linley. There were very few opportunities to establish a relationship with a Paragon, and it was very hard to do so.

“Prior to this, Mr. Linley was hiding his status, and so it would have been easy to make friends with him. But now…he’s revealed his power. There will deﬁnitely be many who want to befriend him. The difﬁculty level will be much greater.” The commanders all understood this principle, and it was indeed the case; if earlier, during the gathering, they had come over and acted in a friendly manner towards Linley, Linley would indeed have been kindly disposed towards them.

But now…

Given that he had revealed his power, those who now came to befriend him clearly did so in order to ingratiate themselves with him. Linley wouldn’t even want to bother with them.

The Darkness alliance had already gained victory earlier in the other corridor. Given that Linley had defeated Magnus, the Darkness alliance’s morale was at an all-time high!

Morale was an invisible, illusory thing.

But it was also true that whichever side in the corridor had the bravest, fearless, and more numerous soldiers would be the side to win. When Linley and Magnus had battled, they very naturally became viewed as representatives of the Darkness alliance and the Light alliance. The forces of each side were naturally cheering for their experts.

Linley had won. Magnus had lost!

The impact of this on the Light alliance soldiers was quite large, and the impact on their commanders was quite large as well. This was because in their heart, they couldn’t help but constantly reﬂect on the fact that the enemy had a Paragon in their ranks. Those commanders simply didn’t dare to go all out and charge forward with abandon, for fear that Linley might intervene to act against them. These commanders had no conﬁdence at all in their ability to deal with Linley.

Given their depressed morale, and how the commanders didn’t dare to lead the way, the soldiers of the Light alliance were being repeatedly driven back!

“Haha, kill. Kill!”

The commanders of the Darkness alliance, upon seeing this, were absolutely delighted. As the soldiers of the Darkness alliance roared heroically, under the leadership of their commanders, they inexorably ground forward like the wheels on a chariot, constantly advancing and attacking. The greater the advantage they held, the easier the battle became. The morale of the Darkness alliance had risen to a crescendo!

By the banks of the Stellar River. Linley and Bebe were watching the battle atop the Stellar Corridor.

“Boss. Our side will win for sure.” Bebe said, very conﬁdent.

Linley watched the slaughter within the corridor, then nodded. “That’s how the battles in the Stellar Corridors are. Once one side begins to cower and retreat, even if there are fresh troops ready to support them from behind, it is useless. Once the front lines collapse, the rear will be affected as well. They’ve deﬁnitely lost!” As soon as Linley’s words came out, the rainbow radiance emanating from the Stellar Corridor suddenly faded away.

The Darkness alliance had gained victory!

They were victorious in both corridors, and so for this Planar War, the side of the Divine Darkness Plane was the victor.

The soldiers of the Darkness alliance all began to turn and depart en masse.

“Second Brother, the Boss died. Alas. Still, we weren’t too misfortunate; things were much better than we had anticipated. The two of us are both still alive!” Two soldiers ﬂew shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing loudly.

“We three brothers have ﬁnally adventured through the Planar Battleﬁeld, and have had the chance to witness so many commanders do battle. We even saw two Paragons ﬁght. I regret nothing. To be able to leave this place alive is an unexpected plus. Haha…right. I even acquired seventy six soldier badges. You?”

“I have ﬁfty as well. When the two of us add them together, we will have enough to swap for a drop of Sovereign’s Might.” “Haha, yet another gain.”

The surviving soldiers were all very happy, chatting and laughing amongst themselves. Those soldiers who dared come here to the Planar Battleﬁeld had all been living for countless years; they wanted to see for themselves the Planar Battleﬁeld and perhaps watch a group of commanders battle amongst themselves. They felt no regrets. For them to survive it? It was an unexpected, pleasant surprise.

“Boss.” Bebe suddenly said.

“Hm?” Linley looked towards him, and Bebe continued, “Boss, if you were a Six Star Fiend who had trained for countless years without making any progress, would you have made the same choice as them?”

“Trained for countless years with no progress?”

Linley was stunned. If he truly was unable to make any further progress, and had to live a long, endless life…when he grew tired of everything, perhaps he truly would choose to give up his divine clone and enter the legendary Planar Battleﬁeld to experience it personally.

“I would make the same choice.” Linley said in a low voice. “If I cannot reach the peak, then I must at least see for myself the place where peak experts gather; the ‘Planar Battleﬁeld.’”

Anyone who had the heart of an expert would be ﬁlled with eagerness towards the battleﬁeld of the supreme experts, the ‘Planar Battleﬁeld’.

“Haha, Linley!” A joyful call rang out.

Linley and Bebe turned, only to see Reisgem and Reihom ﬂy over at high speed. Linley laughed and said, “Reisgem, from that look on your face, you acquired enough military merits, yes?” “Naturally!” Reisgem raised his eyebrows, saying smugly, “But it really was dangerous. The Light alliance was defeated too quickly, resulting in the commanders of the Light alliance ﬂeeing quite quickly as well. If Reihom and I hadn’t joined forces and moved fast enough, we probably wouldn’t have been

able to gain enough badges.”

“Linley, look. Quite a few people are paying attention to you.” Reisgem said in a lowered voice.

Linley turned his head to look.

Many amongst the thronging masses of returning soldiers were looking towards Linley.

“That one dressed in the sky-blue robes is Linley. Him, over there!”

“He defeated a Paragon?” “I personally witnessed it. How could it be false? That was so motherf*cking incredible. In my lifetime, I’ve seen all sorts of experts ﬁghting. I’ve even seen two Paragons exchanging blows. This was worth it.”

“Linley is too powerful…after this battle, I am going to return to my material plane. The treasures that I’ve accumulated over all these years are worth enough to teleport me back. It’s time to go back to my homeland. Haha, from the material plane to the Netherworld, and then countless years adventuring in the Netherworld…I’ve seen many things. It is enough for me. It is time to go home. I wonder what has happened to my homeland in the countless years since I’ve been gone.”

Every single soldier had their own thoughts, their own plans.

Actually, every single person capable of participating in the Planar Wars was an expert. After all, generally only experts at or above the Six Star Fiend level would be chosen as soldiers. But of course, as long as it was approved by a commander, even Five Star Fiend level experts could enter. These soldiers…all had their own dreams. Many of them had come to the Planar Battleﬁeld in pursuit of their dreams.

Earlier, only a portion of the soldiers had witnessed Linley battle Magnus. The news of that battle now spread orally at high speed, and quite a few soldiers turned to look at Linley, wanting to take a look at this Paragon. It wasn’t just the soldiers who were paying attention to Linley; even the

commanders were staring at Linley from far away.

“He…is actually a Paragon.” Woodbridge stared at the distant Linley, not daring to draw near. “If Linley remembers and hates me and kills me when he sees me, that would be terrible.” Woodbridge hurriedly made his way towards the planar gateway along with the rest of the army.

There were some who made haste towards the planar gateway, but also some who wanted to make friends with Linley.

“Mr. Linley, during our last meeting, I had no idea that you were this capable.”

“Mr. Linley…” Some commanders walked over, all of them appearing quite friendly.

Linley just said a few polite words, then said towards Reisgem, “Reisgem, Bebe and I are going to the Netherworld. Let’s part ways here.” The Planar Battleﬁeld was connected to eleven planes, and so there were eleven corridors, each of which led to a different location. Linley and Bebe were going to return to the Netherworld, while Reisgem was returning to the Infernal Realm.

“You are returning to the Netherworld?” Reisgem was stunned.

“Right. We still have something to take care of.” Bebe nodded and laughed as well. “Reisgem, after we return to the Infernal Realm, when we have some free time, we’ll pay a visit to your Amethyst Mountains and have a stroll.”

“Fine, then.” Reisgem said with resignation. “Then let’s part ways here. When we return to the Infernal Realm, we’ll meet again.”

Linley, Bebe, Reisgem, and Reihom went their separate ways. Linley just said a few more words of courtesy to the other commanders, then ﬂew with Bebe at high speed towards the Netherworld corridor. Those other commanders could only watch from afar as Linley ﬂew away, not daring to continue bothering him.

The corridor linking the Planar Battleﬁeld and the Netherworld. Linley and Bebe descended from the skies, instantly drawing quite a bit of attention.

“Hm?” As Linley landed, he saw a black-robed ﬁgure ﬂy towards him.

“Boss, another one who wants to make friends with you.” Bebe sent mentally.

Linley felt rather repulsed by all this; he recognized this black-robed ﬁgure, who was indeed a commander. The black- robed ﬁgure had a rather pale face, and his eyes glowed with a faint, oily green light. Upon seeing Linley, the black-robed ﬁgure bowed slightly, then sent mentally, “Mr. Linley, on behalf of my master, the Flameforge Sovereign of the Netherworld…I would like to invite you to consider becoming the Emissary of my master.”

“Netherworld. Flameforge Sovereign?” Linley couldn’t help but chuckle.

After revealing his power, he would soon receive invitations from various Sovereigns; Linley was prepared for this. But he hadn’t expected…that he would be invited even before he left the Planar Battleﬁeld. Sovereigns truly did work quite quickly.

“Mr. Linley, as a Paragon, I’m sure that the Sovereign will agree to provide you with any sort of Sovereign artifact you desire. But of course, there is a one artifact limit. As for Sovereign power…we won’t be stingy with it.” The black-robed ﬁgure urged.

“Pardon me. At present, I haven’t considered becoming a Sovereign’s Emissary.” Linley smiled.

“Bebe, let’s go.” Linley immediately led Bebe to move towards the corridor.

“Mr. Linley…” The black-robed ﬁgure wanted to say a few more words of persuasion.

But Linley and Bebe didn’t slow down at all. They ﬂew directly into the corridor, disappearing from the black-robed ﬁgure’s ﬁeld of vision.

Seeing this, the black-robed ﬁgure couldn’t help but shake his head. “After he leaves the Planar Battleﬁeld, there will deﬁnitely be many Sovereigns who will invite him. My master probably has no hope of succeeding.” There were differences between Sovereigns as well. For someone at the Paragon level, it was indeed up to them who they wanted to serve as an Emissary for.

Chapter 62, Who Is Alive, Who Is Dead?

The planar corridor was ﬁlled with countless people, and the walls of the corridor ﬂowed with rainbow-colored light.

Linley and Bebe were amidst the crowds, ﬂying towards the exit.

“Almost there!” Linley felt his heat trembling.

“Dixie. Boss Yale. George…and, and my father!” Although he had reached the peak of power, Linley was currently extremely nervous. “I hope they are still alive!” The constant slaughter going on amongst the undead, and the fact that his father had died close to three thousand years ago, meant that the chance his father had truly died was very high.

Linley turned to look at Bebe, who clearly was rather nervous as well.

“Bebe, it’s ﬁne. Everyone will be alive and well.” Linley sent.

“Right.” Bebe hurriedly nodded. As they chatted, they saw that up ahead, a gateway that was completely ﬁlled with a black, netherworldly light had appeared.

They advanced into it alongside the crowds of people. Bebe and Linley entered the gateway, arriving at a vast, wide hall.

Flamebone Mountain. At the dimensional gate.

When Linley had come from here to the Planar Battleﬁeld, there had been very few people here, but now, the entire hall was ﬁlled with people. A shouting voice could be heard. “Everyone, come here to turn in your badges and have your military merits recorded! Soldiers, all of you, line up and go over there! Commanders, come to me!”

Linley and Bebe turned and saw that the speaker was that Sovereign’s Emissary, the silver-haired elder, Gallen. Within the hall, there were multiple tables, each of which had scribes seated behind them. The scribes were constantly recording military merits, and within the corridors, there were now long lines; everyone had to turn in their badge and have it recorded before they were permitted to leave. Only the space in front of the Sovereign’s Emissary, Gallen, was empty.

Commanders were quite rare, after all.

“Mr. Gallen.” Linley called out with a light laugh as he ﬂew over.

“Lord Linley, congratulations. You were able to return alive.” Gallen, upon seeing Linley and Bebe, began to smile. That stern-faced shout of his was meant for the ordinary soldiers; to commanders who were of similar rank to him, he was still quite friendly.

“How’d it go? Did you acquire enough military merits this time?” Gallen chortled.

“I have enough.” Linley nodded.

Gallen looked at Linley in surprise. To acquire a Sovereign artifact required ten enemy commander badges. “I had no idea. Impressive! Mr. Linley, give the badges to me. I will take care of this comrade of yours by your side as well. If he goes to my subordinates, he will spend a very long time in line.”

Linley turned and glanced at the line. Indeed, the line had already formed a series of circles within the main hall, and many had to wait in midair.

Linley and Bebe each withdrew their blood-red badges and their black badges, handing them over.

This was a very strict rule; if they weren’t in possession of their badges, they would be put to death.

“Since you already have enough military merits, there is no need for me to record them. You can go visit the Sovereign directly and have them make a Sovereign artifact for you.” Gallen said with a laugh. “The Sovereigns all have a copy of the records indicating how many military merits the commanders who went through the Planar War possess. You only need to go provide the enemy badges you acquired, and the Sovereign shall know.”

As he spoke, Gallen pointed towards a long, open corridor behind him.

“You can leave by this private exit and go see the Sovereign.” Gallen laughed.

“See the Sovereign? See the Sovereign in person?” Bebe said, astonished.

Gallen laughed. “Of course not. Sovereigns aren’t going to waste time coming. The Sovereign you will be seeing will just be an energy construct. The Sovereign’s true body is still far away, in another part of the Netherworld.”

“Mr. Linley!” A warm greeting rang out. Linley and Bebe both turned to look; the speaker was a violet-robed, black- haired man.

“Worthington [Wo’sen’te]!” Linley nodded slightly. Linley had met this commander before and remembered him.

Gallen, upon seeing him, immediately laughed. “Oh, Lord Worthington. Congratulations.” Everyone who survived a Planar War deserved to be congratulated. Gallen continued, “Lord Worthington, did you acquire enough military merits this time? Tartarus Lord Linley has enough, and he entered a hundred years after you did.”

“I’m not quite there yet. Here are three commander badges. Record them down.” Worthington took out three golden commander badges and his own blood-red badge, then chortled, “Gallen, it is perfectly natural for Mr. Linley to have acquired enough military merits. How can I compare to Mr. Linley? Mr. Linley is a Paragon, after all.”

A look of astonishment instantly appeared on Gallen’s face as he turned to stare at Linley.

“Paragon?” Gallen was very stunned.

“Naturally.” Worthington laughed loudly. “Mr. Linley had a grand duel with the Paragon ‘Magnus’ in the air above the Stellar Corridor of the Planar Battleﬁeld. The other commanders and countless soldiers present had no choice but to step back and stop ﬁghting! Magnus was even driven by Mr. Linley into chaotic space.”

Gallen couldn’t believe it.

“You two can keep chatting. I’ll go visit the Sovereign.” Linley said with a smile, and then went towards the corridor behind Gallen alongside Bebe. Linley could still hear the conversation going on behind him…

“Linley became a Paragon? What’s this about. Tell me about it in detail.”

“I’ll discuss this with you later. Just now, you referred to Mr. Linley as a ‘Tartarus Lord’; what’s this about? Isn’t he an Elder of the Azure Dragon clan?” Linley didn’t hear the following words, because he had already moved deep into the tunnel. This tunnel was very wide, at least ﬁve meters or so, and nearly four meters high. The walls of the corridor were all faintly glowing with a blurry green light, causing it to seem very dreamlike and illusory. After walking for a few moments…

In front of Linley, a four-way intersection appeared.

“Now where should we go?” Bebe was rather bafﬂed.

Linley carefully looked at the tunnels, but there was no one else here. Suddenly, a voice rang out in Linley’s mind. “Linley, the two of you, enter the tunnel on the left. After walking for a bit, you’ll see me.”

“The Chief Sovereign of Death!” Linley’s eyes lit up.

“Bebe, come this way.” Linley immediately led Bebe towards the tunnel on the left. After walking just a hundred meters, they exited the tunnel and arrived at a wide, shining hall.

Linley swept the area with his gaze. There was no one seated on the throne within the hall, but by the sides of the hall, there was a lithe, graceful ﬁgure dressed in a violet robe, with long blood-red hair cascading down her shoulders. Suddenly, this ﬁgure turned, and as she swept Linley with her gaze, he couldn’t help but feel his heart tremble.

“Sovereign.” Linley bowed slightly.

This person was the Chief Sovereign of Death, but Linley now had the feeling that although the Chief Sovereign of Death was emanating a perceptible aura of majesty, the aura wasn’t that strong. Linley could tell…that this ﬁgure should have been a mere clone which the Sovereign created from energy.

“Admirable.” The Chief Sovereign of Death looked at Linley, the corners of her lips crooking upwards slightly. “Linley, it’s quite rare for me to admire someone. However…I now quite admire you. After all, although I am the Chief Sovereign of Death, in terms of the Laws, I have yet to become a Paragon. But you have! Formidable!” Linley was stunned.

When chatting with Reisgem, Linley had learned that becoming a Sovereign didn’t have anything to do with whether one was a Paragon or not. Many Sovereigns had yet to become Paragons. But Linley hadn’t imagined…that even someone as powerful as the Chief Sovereign of Death was yet to be a Paragon.

However, Linley himself wasn’t a Paragon, just a Soul Mutate.

Still, Linley temporarily didn’t wish to publicize this. Thus, he accepted others calling him a Paragon. After all, a four- clone Soul Mutate was simply too astonishing.

“It’s been just a thousand years or so, but you’ve actually reached such a level.” The Chief Sovereign of Death let out a sigh of praise.

“Sovereign.” Linley bowed slightly, then said respectfully, “According to our earlier agreement, for each commander badge I acquired, you would help me ﬁnd one person and allow them to regain their memories. I’ve come now to ask you, Sovereign, to carry out this agreement.” Linley went straight to the heart of the matter!

The Chief Sovereign of Death gave Linley a sidelong glance. She still naturally emanated a high, lofty aura of looking down at all other creatures.

“Be my Emissary.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said casually.

Linley was slightly startled.

Linley didn’t want to become a Sovereign’s Emissary, but the speaker was the Chief Sovereign of Death. If the Chief Sovereign of Death were to use saving Linley’s family and friends as leverage, there really would be nothing else Linley could do.

“Sovereign.” Bebe said unhappily. “Can it be that you are going to threaten my Boss, Sovereign?” The Chief Sovereign of Death glanced sideways at Bebe, and that clear, icy gaze caused Bebe’s heart to tremble. The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly, “Of course not! As the Chief Sovereign, whatever I have said, I will naturally uphold. For each enemy commander badge, I will ﬁnd a person for you and allow that person to regain his or her memories. As for inviting you to become my Emissary, that’s something else. You can choose to decline.”

Linley bowed slightly, then refused in a roundabout way. “Forgive me, Sovereign. For now, I’m not yet prepared to become someone’s Emissary.”

“That’s ﬁne as well.” The Chief Sovereign of Death’s voice turned icy. “Per our agreement, take out your commander badges. Let me warn you in advance; the chances of death are very, very high…if the person you are looking for is already dead, you can’t blame anyone else. I’m only responsible for searching for them and restoring their memories.”

“Of course.” Linley took a deep breath, then took out four commander badges, with Bebe taking out two.

“Six?” The Chief Sovereign of Death raised an eyebrow. “Speak, then. Who are you searching for.”

“The ﬁrst is my good friend, also from the Yulan Plane. Yale Dawson!” Linley said quickly.

The Chief Sovereign of Death nodded slightly. “Wait a moment. My true body will search through the Netherworld Heart.” After all, even the Chief Sovereign of Death, just by relying on her own powers, couldn’t possibly search the entire Netherworld for a single undead with just a name. But the ‘Netherworld Heart’ was different; this was the solidiﬁcation of the Laws which controlled the Netherworld itself, in material form.

This was the Heart of the Netherworld!

Through the Netherworld Heart, one could easily ﬁnd any person who had been transformed into an undead after death. “I hope Boss Yale is still alive.” Linley felt nervous, while Bebe couldn’t help but clutch at Linley’s hands.

“Found him.” The Chief Sovereign of Death nodded. “Hm?

Strange. He’s actually a netherblood spirit.”

“Netherblood spirit?” Linley said, startled.

“Right. There are many types of undead; generally speaking, when an ordinary mortal dies and becomes a netherblood spirit, it is because they were ﬁlled with tremendous hatred, anger, and a desire to kill. Naturally, this means that netherblood spirits are fairly common amongst undead.” The Chief Sovereign of Death gave Linley a sidelong glance. “Your luck isn’t bad. Not only is he alive, he is also a Saint-level undead. Next.”

Linley took a deep breath, then said, “My Second Bro, George.”

“Oh?” A hint of a smile played at the corners of the Chief Sovereign of Death’s lips.

Linley stared at the Chief Sovereign of Death. “Your ‘Second Bro’, George, is alive as well. In addition, he’s a Demigod. There is no need for me to restore his memories.”

“He became a Deity?” Linley couldn’t help but feel delight.

It made sense. Dixie and George both died as Saints; a Saint- level undead did indeed have the chance to become a Deity.

“The third.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly.

“The third one is my wife’s elder brother, Dixie.” Linley said hurriedly. Linley had to admit, this Netherworld Heart was truly miraculous; with just some basic information, it was able to ﬁnd his family and friends. Linley had no idea…that in reality, just based on the name ‘Linley’, the Netherworld Heart would be able to instantly ﬁnd everyone connected to him.”

To the Chief Sovereign of Death, ﬁnding one person and ﬁnding ten people was almost the same. Still…the Chief Sovereign of Death wouldn’t possibly tell Linley this.

“Dixie? Hey, he became Deity as well.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said. “However, his divine clone is dead, while his Saint-level body remains hiding within the Undead Realm. He doesn’t need me to restore his memory either.”

Linley felt a surge of joy in his heart. Although Dixie had become a Deity, then lost his divine clone, he was still alive. Now, only four were remaining. Next was his father…Hogg!

His father…

“My father, Hogg!” Linley said slowly.

The Chief Sovereign of Death searched for a moment, then nodded and said. “The four you searched for are all quite decent. Two became Deities, while the other two became Saints. Your father is currently a Saint-level undead…mm. No wonder your father is still alive. He’s a member of the Azure Dragon clan. His soul is decent.” Although Hogg hadn’t regained his memories, he was still a member of the Azure Dragon clan. His soul was still far more powerful than the souls of most undead.

“Father…is still…” Linley was wildly overjoyed.

He had been quite afraid, but the end results had been miraculous. All four of the people he had been searching for were alive.

Actually, this had to do with the four of them themselves. The stronger one was, the higher the chances for survival; two were Saint-level undead to begin with, and thus naturally had higher chances for survival to begin with. Yale had died in hatred and had become a netherblood spirit, and was quite powerful when alive. As for Hogg, his soul was also very powerful.

“Two others. My brother Bebe’s parents.” Linley said hurriedly. Linley realized that aside from the ﬁrst person, ‘Yale’, the Sovereign was able to almost instantly reply to him with regards to the status of the others. It was as though the searching process was quite fast.

“Right, my father and my mother.” Bebe said hurriedly. “But I don’t know their names.”

“I don’t need the names. Still, you’ll have to wait a time.” The Chief Sovereign of Death glanced sideways at Bebe.

Linley looked encouragingly at Bebe. He sent mentally, “Don’t worry, Bebe. Your parents were magical beasts of the ninth rank; they were quite powerful when alive, and they were also of Beirut’s clan. Their souls should be fairly powerful as well. There is a good chance they are alive!”

“Right.” Bebe took a deep breath, then nodded.

Linley could sense that Bebe was currently very nervous. Bebe had never met his parents before, after all. They waited a time, and then… “Your luck is excellent.” The Chief Sovereign of Death looked at Bebe in surprised. “Your parents are both Saint-level undead, and fairly powerful ones at that.”

“Wonderful!” Bebe clenched his ﬁst, so excited his face was completely red.

Linley was happy for Bebe as well. Ever since he had undergone his soul mutation, it seemed as though his luck had improved. Every single person he had searched for was still alive.

Suddenly…

A thought ﬂashed past Linley’s mind. “Bebe’s parents. Then…my mother?” Bebe had never seen his parents, but Linley had no memories of his mother either; although he had never met his mother, she was still his mother. His own mother!”

“Sovereign, can you search for one more person for me?” Linley said nervously.

“No. Six badges, six chances.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly, not budging at all.

The nearby Bebe said hurriedly, “Sovereign, two of the people my Boss asked you to search for are Deities; there’s no need for you to restore their memories. They shouldn’t count, right. Or let’s just say that those two just represented a single chance.”

“And who are you to make that decision?” The Sovereign glanced sideways at Bebe. “The six chances are all used up.”

Linley couldn’t help but feel a bit frantic.

“But of course…if you are willing to become my Emissary, as your Sovereign, I would be willing to search a few more times for you, free of charge.” The Chief Sovereign of Death suddenly said.

Linley was stunned.

Did he have to become a Sovereign’s Emissary?

“Boss?” Bebe couldn’t help but look at Linley.

“Sovereign.” Linley frowned as he spoke. “Actually, a single commander badge isn’t that valuable. Given my status, if I were to leave…I could ﬁnd another commander and borrow a badge from him. It can be said that I would owe that person a favor. I trust others would agree to my request.”

A favor from Linley, in exchange for a commander badge? Many commanders would be willing to engage in this sort of a deal.

“True.” The Chief Sovereign of Death nodded.

“Then Sovereign…how about this. If you are able to ﬁnd the person I am looking for, then I am willing to become your Emissary. If you aren’t able to ﬁnd this person, or if she is already dead, then let’s drop the matter of becoming your Emissary.” Linley looked at the Chief Sovereign of Death.

The Chief Sovereign of Death looked at Linley, pausing momentarily, then laughed and nodded. “Fine. I accept.” Doing another search, as far as the Chief Sovereign of Death was concerned, didn’t require much effort. The Chief Sovereign of Death knew that if she didn’t agree, Linley probably really would go borrow another badge.

“I want to search for my mother…” Linley said slowly.

Chapter 63, Return

“Your mother?” The Chief Sovereign of Death gave Linley a surprised glance.

As the Chief Sovereign of Death saw it, it would’ve made sense if Linley had immediately wanted to locate his parents. To ﬁrst search for his father…and then leave his mother for later.

“Wait a moment.” The Chief Sovereign of Death shut her eyes.

Linley felt nervousness in his heart. “Mother…I’ve never before met my mother!” In Linley’s memory, ‘mother’ was a word that was very distant from him. He had no recollections of that word in his mind. But Linley was able to see the parents of others, and occasionally would think of his own mother. What was his own mother like?

“Strange.” The Chief Sovereign of Death opened her eyes, her cold, gloomy gaze falling on Linley’s face.

“What is it?” Linley said hurriedly. Linley was worried about his mother; after all, compared to his father or his friends, when she was alive, she was very weak. Although her soul was very pure, her strength wasn’t very great.

“You weren’t able to ﬁnd her?” The nearby Bebe couldn’t help but feel worried for Linley.

The Chief Sovereign of Death just frowned, looking at Linley with some irritation. “Linley, are you trying to prank me?”

Linley didn’t understand. He hurriedly said, “Sovereign, how would I dare prank you? Sovereign, please tell me, what is the situation with my mother? Is she undead? Regardless of whether she is alive or dead, please tell me directly.” Linley felt nervous, but the look on the face of the Chief Sovereign of Death became even more unsightly.

“Hmph, Linley, your mother isn’t dead at all, nor has she become an undead! And yet, you ask me to search for her?” A hint of a baleful look was in the eyes of the Chief Sovereign of Death.

Of course the Chief Sovereign of Death would feel irritated!

Linley had made a bet with her earlier; if Linley’s mother was dead, then at least the Chief Sovereign of Death had a chance for winning the bet. But if Linley’s mother wasn’t even dead, how could the Chief Sovereign of Death possibly ﬁnd her? If his mother was alive, and yet Linley asked the Chief Sovereign of Death to search for her…then that meant Linley was just toying with her!

“My mother isn’t dead?” Linley couldn’t believe it.

The nearby Bebe stared, wide-eyed. “Not dead? No way. That King of Fenlai said it himself. It shouldn’t be false.”

“Your mother isn’t dead.” The Chief Sovereign of Death had a dark look on her face. “Or, she might have died with her soul being destroyed as well. One thing is for certain; your mother’s soul isn’t in the Netherworld at all, nor has she transformed into an undead. There is a record in the Netherworld Heart of every single person who was transformed into an undead. There’s no way it wouldn’t ﬁnd her if she was here!”

Linley frowned.

What sort of status did the Chief Sovereign of Death have? There was no way she would lie! And yet, his mother clearly had passed away. What was going on?

“Sovereign.” Linley hurriedly said. “My mother did indeed pass away long ago. Based on my investigations, when my mother died, her soul was offered by the Radiant Church of a material plane to the ‘Radiant Sovereign’, the Chief Sovereign of Light. The Chief Sovereign of Light is a Chief Sovereign; would he care about a common soul? Is it possible that the soul would actually be transferred through the planes to the Divine Light Plane?”

Linley didn’t believe this at all. The Chief Sovereign of Death, upon hearing this, completely understood. She gave Linley a cold glance. “If things transpired as you stated, then your mother’s soul should indeed have gone to the Divine Light Plane. It is under the complete control of the Chief Sovereign of Light, now. In short, her soul isn’t under my control.”

“The Divine Light Plane?” Linley was frantic. He said, “Is there any way for me to bring my mother back?”

“Impossible!”

The Chief Sovereign of Death said this with absolute certainty. “All the souls collected by the Chief Sovereign of Light will never regain their free will. I will tell you this…the Angels of the Divine Light Realm are completely loyal to the Sovereigns of Light; there is no way they will ever be disloyal. Even if you ﬁnd the Angel which your mother was transformed into, there is no way she will return.”

“Angels?” Linley knew a few things about these Angels. The Angels were a powerful military race controlled by the Sovereigns of Light. According to the legends, the Sovereigns created the Angels, and although they were intelligent, they were described as ‘human-shaped war machines’. His mother had become an Angel?

“Why else would the Sovereigns of Light collect pure souls? The purpose is to strengthen their Angel Armies.” The Chief Sovereign of Death snickered.

“There’s no way for me to bring my mother back?” Linley didn’t understand.

“Reincarnated undead at least have their freedom. But Angels…” The Chief Sovereign of Death glanced sideways at Linley. “Linley, you have heard of ‘Deathgod Golems’, human- shaped weapons of war, yes? Angels are a bit more special than Deathgod Golems; they have their own intelligence, after all. But there is one thing that they share; Angels will never betray their masters, the Sovereigns of Light. In addition, given the temper of the Chief Sovereign of Light? Forget about you; even if other Sovereigns personally visited him and asked him to give one of his Angels freedom, it still wouldn’t be very likely.” Hearing this, Linley’s heart sank.

The Chief Sovereign of Light was a Chief Sovereign, after all!

“Is there anything else? If there is nothing else, I am going to leave.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly.

Linley didn’t think about it any longer, hurriedly saying, “There’s one more thing I would like to ask about.”

“You really are a lot of trouble.” The Chief Sovereign of Death nodded slightly. “Speak, then.” The Chief Sovereign of Death’s attitude towards Linley was clearly much better now than back on the Abyssal Mountain. Clearly, Linley’s becoming a ‘Paragon’ had improved her view of him greatly. This was only normal…Sovereigns generally admired people who were able to become Paragons.

After all, becoming a Sovereign was a matter of fate and luck. But Paragons? That was a matter of true skill and ability.

“I’d like to ask, if a person’s soul is dissipated, is there any way to bring that person back to life?” Linley said nervously. The nearby Bebe couldn’t help but glance at Linley. “For Boss to discuss this…he must be thinking about Grandpa Doehring.” Bebe knew very well how deep Linley’s affection for Doehring Cowart was.

The Chief Sovereign of Death chuckled. “Are you joking? Once a person’s soul is dissipated, that person is deﬁnitely dead. How can that person be brought back?”

“Oh…” That ﬁnal hint of hope in Linley’s heart was shattered.

He hadn’t held much hope to begin with, just a tiny bit of it.

The Chief Sovereign of Death raised an eyebrow, and then a hint of a smile appeared on her face. “Actually, Linley, there might be one small chance for a person whose soul was dissipated to come back to life.” “Eh?” Linley’s eyes suddenly turned bright and sharp, and he stared ﬁxedly at the Chief Sovereign of Death. “Sovereign, what method is that?”

The Chief Sovereign of Death was startled by the look in Linley’s eyes, but her amusement only grew. “A person whose soul is dissipated will deﬁnitely die. This is the view of the Sovereigns. But according to legend, the ‘Overgod of Life’ is the personiﬁcation of the Edicts of Life; she, herself, is the Edict of Life. The way the universe functions is controlled by the Edicts. I’m not able to save a person whose soul was dissipated…but perhaps the Overgod of Life is.”

“Right. Right.” Linley couldn’t help but feel ﬁlled with excitement. “The functioning of the universe is controlled by the Edicts. The Overgod of Life, as a personiﬁcation of the Edicts, would deﬁnitely be able to save that person.”

“This is just my opinion. I’m not an Overgod. I can’t be completely certain as to whether an Overgod can save such a person or not.” The Chief Sovereign of Death laughed calmly. “However, as I see it, Overgods are completely omnipotent. It would appear that there is nothing in the boundless universe which they cannot accomplish. They are the Edicts, after all!”

This was just a guess of the Chief Sovereign of Death, but this guess was something Linley felt was plausible!

The Overgod of Life had control over life; perhaps rescue truly was possible.

“I have no more time to waste here with you.” The Chief Sovereign of Death said calmly. “The six people you mentioned are all spread out throughout the Netherworld. I will arrange for them to be brought to the Abyssal Mountain. You should now make haste to the Abyssal Mountain…and reunite with your family and friends.” As soon as these words were spoken…

The Chief Sovereign of Death’s body disappeared, the energy returning to the world.

This was just an energy clone, after all.

Linley and Bebe looked at each other.

“Boss, congratulations.” Bebe chortled.

Linley was all smiles. All of Linley’s doubts had been resolved upon hearing this news from the Chief Sovereign of Death. His father and friends were able to return…and as for his mother, she had become an Angel of the Divine Light Plane. As for Grandpa Doehring, perhaps if he were able to meet the Overgod of Life, Linley would be able to ask for him to be revived.

This slender hope ﬁlled Linley with will and energy!

“Everything will work out.” Linley said quietly to himself.

“Bebe, let’s go. We’ll go to the Abyssal Mountain.” Linley didn’t want to stay here at Flamebone Mountain. He immediately left with Bebe, and then entered their metallic lifeform, quickly advancing towards the Abyssal Mountain.

The Netherworld. Northbone Prefecture. The lair of the bandits of the eighteen mountain ranges. One of the mountain ranges.

Dark clouds swirled in the air above like a black dragon, covering the night sky. The bloody, devilish moon could faintly be seen.

George was currently seated before the window to his room, his head raised as he stared towards the eerie, bloody moon.

“The wealth I have accumulated should be enough to buy a house within the city.” George was musing to himself. “More importantly, I need to ﬁnd a chance to go to the city. Right… three months later, a caravan will be sent to the city to sell off some things that we’ve robbed. Three months from now, then!”

This entire time, George had been slowly, unhurriedly waiting. Although he was a steward for these bandits, in charge of dividing up the wealth, George didn’t dare to embezzle too much. Still, having spent so many years as an ofﬁcial, he was in charge of the wealth for these experts, most of whom only knew how to train and to kill but knew nothing about ﬁnancial management. Thus, it was a fairly relaxed position for him. Over the years…the bandits had become quite fond of George.

As they saw it, this steward was generous and kind, and divided things up fairly. Everyone agreed with his judgments.

Suddenly…

“Twelfth Bro!” A bellow echoed out.

“Who is it?” George frowned, immediately heading to the living room.

Quite a few people emerged from within the castle. The leader of this mountain branch, a big, bald fellow, strode out as well. “Hey, Boss. What’s the rush?” As he spoke, he took his guards to go welcome the person. He could tell that the speaker was the chief of the eighteen mountain ranges.

The light of the eerie, bloody-red moon seemed to cover the entire mountain range with a layer of blood.

“Twelfth Bro, hurry up!” A deep voice echoed.

George was behind the big, bald fellow. By now, George also recognized the bearded dwarf who arrived, alongside a violet- robed, golden-haired man. The bearded dwarf was the chief of their eighteen mountain ranges, ‘Kleopatra’. “Who is the person next to the chief?” George was rather puzzled. How was it that there was a person amongst their ranks he didn’t recognize, and yet held a high rank?

“The person next to me is the Seven Star Specter, Lord Beverly [Be’wei’li].” The bearded dwarf said.

The bald man immediately bowed. “Milord.”

The violet-robed, golden-haired man gave him a calm glance, but then his gaze fell upon George who stood behind the bald man. George, seeing this, was secretly shocked. “Why is this Seven Star Specter staring at me?” As George saw it, an expert on the level of a Seven Star Specter was deﬁnitely one of the supreme experts of the Netherworld.

“You are George, yes?” The violet-robed, golden-haired man said calmly.

“Uh…yes.” George was shocked.

“In your previous life, did you come from the Yulan Plane?” A rare hint of a smile appeared in the eyes of the violet-robed, golden-haired man.

George was stunned, but he still nodded in acknowledgment.

“Very good. Follow me.” The violet-robed man said.

“Milord Beverly, dare I ask, why are you taking George away?” The bald man said hurriedly. He had been very satisﬁed with George being his steward over these many years; George carried out all tasks fastidiously, making it so that he hadn’t had to worry about anything. He truly didn’t want to let George leave.

The violet-robed man couldn’t help but frown.

“Twelfth Bro.” The big bearded dwarf couldn’t help but bark in rebuke.

“Chief, let me follow him.” George felt grateful to the bald man for standing up for him right now, but he also knew that the request of a Seven Star Specter was something which these bandits wouldn’t dare refuse.

“George…” The bald man looked at him, then slapped George on the shoulders.

George squeezed out a smile as well, but his heart was ﬁlled with a sour feeling. “I had prepared for so many years. We were about to go to the city…why did this person suddenly appear to take me away? It’s hard to predict what will happen on this trip. By the looks of it, my reunion with Third Bro and the others will become even more difﬁcult.”

“Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing for you.” The violet- robed, golden-haired man gave him a sidelong glance, then said calmly, “The Sovereign made these arrangements.”

“The Sovereign?”

George and the surrounding people were shocked.

“You. Follow me.” The violet-robed man looked at George and spoke in a calm voice.

“Yes.” George didn’t dare to disobey, but in his heart, he was utterly mystiﬁed. “I’m just a minor ﬁgure. Why would I attract the interest of a Sovereign to the point of sending someone for me?” George didn’t understand, but all he could do was follow this Seven Star Specter and depart.

Chapter 64, Gathered From Many Places

The skies were dark, and the vast earth seemed dry and barren.

This was the northern part of the Undead Realm, the ‘Ashbelle’ [A’she’bei’er] Drylands. Group of skeletons were scattered throughout the drylands, along with groups of zombies. Undead generally moved in groups; very few dared to move about by themselves.

Suddenly, those slowly shambling zombies suddenly turned to look towards one direction.

A rhythmic sound could be heard coming from the ground. “Graaaaaaawr.” A gold-furred zombie raised its head, releasing a howl. Instantly, the group of zombies all began to move at high speed, but moments later, more than ten black blurs emerged from the ground at high speed. These ten blurs were ‘Black Knights’, fairly powerful undead in the Undead Realm.

Even the weakest Black Knight was at least an undead of the ﬁfth rank.

This squad of Black Knights had a total of nineteen members, with the leader being dressed in blood-red armor. His face was covered by a visor, but his cold gaze swept out through it towards the surrounding area. Those weaker undead were all so terriﬁed that they hurriedly ﬂed, but the Black Knights were able to easily catch up to them.

“Aaaaaaaah!” The leading Black Knight raised his head, letting out a furious roar, as though giving vent to his anger.

The eighteen Black Knights didn’t understand; their lord was a very powerful Saint-level Black Knight, a monarch of the Undead Realm who had his own castle and a large number of Black Knights under his control. But today, their monarch had led his Black Knights to randomly, furiously gallop throughout the drylands.

Gallop around senselessly while venting!

“Enough. Let’s return.” The Black Knight leader said calmly. “Yes, milord.”

The nineteen Black Knights once more began to gallop backwards. In the Ashbelle Drylands, every single Saint was considered a supreme expert, and this Black Knight was one of the ranked experts of this region.

“I…I suddenly regained my memories from my previous life. What is going on?” The Black Knight leader’s heart was ﬁlled with confusion and shock.

“I…will I ever be able to return to the Yulan Plane?” The Black Knight leader said quietly to himself.

“My sons. Linley. Wharton. How are they? It has been over two thousand years. Are they Saint-level Dragonblood Warriors now, or have they yet to reach the Saint rank? Did they become undead instead?” The Black Knight leader’s heart was ﬁlled with complex emotions. Ever since he regained his memories, his mind had never stopped pondering.

This Black Knight leader was Linley’s father…Hogg!

Ever since gaining his memories from his past life, Hogg was no longer able to remain calm-minded. He missed his sons. He also wanted to get revenge for his wife. But he understood that given that more than two thousand years had passed, Duke Patterson of the Kingdom of Fenlai had probably died of old age long ago.

In the blink of an eye, forty years passed since the day Hogg regained his memories.

The castle of the Black Knights. Hogg was still dressed in that bloody red armor. He stood at the very peak of the castle, his head raised as he stared into the dark skies. Suddenly, a ﬁgure ﬂew over at high speed.

“Huh?” Hogg was startled.

“Whoosh!” The person charged straight downwards at extremely high speed. “Who is it!” Hogg let out a low growl.

“Clang!” At the same instant, the many armored Black Knights within the castle all rose to their feet.

“Haha…” The person let out a loud laugh, and then a terrifying majestic presence spread out. A powerful divine presence covered the entire castle, and all of the Black Knights within felt as though the end had come. All of them knelt in terror; this was an absolute difference in levels.

Hogg raised his head to look at this person. This was someone who looked like a youth, with short silver hair and a baby’s face.

“Hogg?” The youth said casually.

Hogg was shocked! Before regaining his memories, he had no idea that his name was ‘Hogg’. As Hogg saw it…in this world, aside from himself, there shouldn’t be anyone else who knew who his true identity was. But this person before him had just addressed him by his name. “Who are you?” Hogg stared at this person. “Was it you who gave me my memories back?”

“I don’t have that power.” The youth laughed softly. “Only Sovereigns are capable of restoring your memories. Come with me!”

“Sovereign? I…” Hogg didn’t even have the chance to argue before a surge of divine power swept out and bound him. The youth thus forcibly carried Hogg off, and the two ﬂew towards the south. That youth even mumbled, “This undead was actually so far away. I had to go from the Netherworld to this place, and now go all the way back to the Abyssal Mountain. This really is quite a journey.”

The many Black Knights of the castle stared, speechless, as their monarch was thus dragged away. They weren’t able to do anything about it. Linley’s father. Yale. George. Dixie. Bebe’s father and mother. The Chief Sovereign of Death arranged for people to take them all away.

The Netherworld. The base of the Abyssal Mountain. Within the Abyssal Inn.

Linley was seated in a chair, while Bebe was standing and frowning. “Boss. We’ve been here for more than ten years now, but no one has arrived. How much longer are we supposed to wait for?”

Linley and Bebe had arrived at the Abyssal Mountain long ago, but as there were no other residences here at the Abyssal Mountain, the Chief Sovereign of Death had permitted Linley and Bebe to remain within the Inn. But who would have imagined that despite the passage of more than ten years, Linley had yet to see a single person arrive?

“Keep waiting.” Linley sat there calmly on his chair, ﬂipping through a book. “The Sovereign arranged for people to ﬁnd Boss Yale and the others and bring them back. They are all in different locations. My father is in the Undead Realm, and from there to here is quite a journey. It’s not that they are slow; rather, it’s that we were too fast in ﬂying from Tartarus to the Abyssal Mountain.”

Although they rode on a metallic lifeform, Linley had been able to infuse his Will into the metallic lifeform and make it move much faster. In less than ten years, they had travelled from Tartarus to the Abyssal Mountain.

Suddenly…

Linley raised his head to look towards the skies. Bebe looked at Linley in surprise. “Boss, what is it?”

“A powerful aura.” Linley said in a soft voice. In the Netherworld, Linley had incredible powers of control over the surrounding area; after all, the spatial walls of the Netherworld were far weaker than in the Planar Battleﬁeld. Upon sensing an expert draw near, Linley spread out his divine sense… A hundred kilometers away, a metallic lifeform shaped like a golden ﬁsh ﬂew towards the inn, with George and that violet- robed, golden-haired man within it.

George glanced at the violet-robed man. “This Seven Star Specter, Beverly, said that he came to receive me at the orders of the Sovereign, but says he has no idea why the Sovereign wishes to see me.” George himself didn’t understand; he was a Demigod, a minor ﬁgure. People like him within the Netherworld were beyond count. Why would the Sovereign want to see him?”

“Here we are.” Beverly said.

The metallic lifeform suddenly disappeared, with Beverly and George appearing in midair.

“Second Bro!” An utterly delighted voice rang out, while at the same time, a ﬁgure suddenly appeared in front of George and Beverly. “What sort of speed is this? I am a Seven Star Specter, but I wasn’t even able to react!” Beverly was completely stunned. He had no idea; even commander-level experts, when faced with the speed of a Paragon, would ﬁnd it hard to react, much less him, an ordinary Seven Star Specter.

George’s body trembled as he stared at the person in front of him.

That familiar ﬁgure, that familiar face, that familiar smile…

“Third Bro!” George was so excited that his face instantly turned red, and he charged forwards, wrapping his arms tightly around Linley.

“Haha, Second Bro, I’ve ﬁnally found you.” Linley tightly embraced his friend for a long while before releasing him. Linley was incomparably moved upon seeing George, his lifelong friend since youth.

“Third Bro, you…why are you here?” Only now did George ﬁnally think of this question.

As for Beverly, he bowed slightly towards the direction of the Abyssal Mountain, then turned and left. George, seeing this, couldn’t help but feel surprised. “Beverly, this Seven Star Specter, was supposed to take me to see the Sovereign. He’s leaving?”

“I asked the Sovereign to arrange for you to be brought here.” Linley laughed merrily.

“Third Bro, you asked the Sovereign…?” George was stunned.

After having lived in the Netherworld for a long time, George had learned of the various tiers of power within the Netherworld. Even the highest level experts like Lord Prefects, however, were but ants in the eyes of the Sovereigns. To ask a Sovereign to help out…the difference between a Deity and a Sovereign was like the difference between an ordinary mortal and a Deity. A mortal, ask a Deity to help out? This was utterly inconceivable. “Haha. What’s the big deal?” Bebe suddenly appeared from nearby, chortling. “George, in a little bit, Yale and Dixie will come as well.”

“Boss Yale?” George looked towards Linley in disbelief. “Third Bro, you actually asked a Sovereign to arrange for so many people to be found and brought over? This…what’s the relationship between you and this Sovereign?”

“Come, let’s go inside ﬁrst.” Linley said with a laugh.

George’s starting location had been fairly close to the Abyssal Mountain, and so of course it hadn’t taken too long for him to arrive. Shortly after George’s arrival…Dixie arrived as well! And then came Bebe’s parents, with Yale coming next.

Yale had arrived!

George and Dixie had died before Yale. They didn’t understand how terrible Yale’s death had been, but after arriving in the Abyssal Inn, they had learned from Linley and Bebe about what had happened after their deaths in the Yulan continent. After hearing the details, they couldn’t help but blaze with rage as well.

“Third Bro! Second Bro! You are here?”

As soon as Yale arrived, upon seeing Linley and George, he was utterly overjoyed.

“Boss Yale.” Linley and George couldn’t help but rush forward. The three friends tightly embraced each other. When Yale thought of all the suffering he had endured over the years, and how today, he was meeting his dearest friends yet again, he couldn’t help but shed tears.

That night, at the banquet.

“I really didn’t imagine it!” Yale’s eyes were moist, but his face was ﬁlled with an excited smile. “I thought that after dying, it all would have ended, but who would have imagined… that I, an undead, would actually regain my memories from my past life, and also be brought here. We three brothers are reunited once more! Third Bro, I have to thank you. You let me once more feel hope. Hope for continuing the lineage of my Dawson clan. Hope for revenge!”

The nearby Dixie sighed as well. “The Netherworld is incredibly dangerous. I had originally managed to train to the point of developing a divine clone, but soon after entering the Netherworld, I died. Fortunately, I was cautious and left my Saint-level original body within the Undead Realm. I had thought that I would have to continue to live and die in those ﬁelds of slaughter. Linley, thank you.”

In the past, in the Ernst Institute, Linley and Dixie had been acclaimed as the two stars of the Institute.

But now…

That young magus held incredibly powerful inﬂuence, to the point of being able to ask a Sovereign for help.

“Enough about these matters. What matters is that we are all together again.” Linley lifted his wineglass in a toast. “Come. What’s past is past. Come, cheers!” “Cheers!”

Bebe called out happily as well. Next to Bebe was a man and a woman. Bebe’s mother looked very kind, and she was dressed in a long, violet robe. As for Bebe’s father, a strong, baleful aura emanated from him, making him look very cold and remote. But in this situation, even he revealed a smile.

Yale, Dixie, and Bebe’s parents. On the way over, Yale had been given a Demigod spark and reﬁned it to become a Deity. The same had happened for Bebe’s parents. Only Dixie… remained a Saint. Dixie still wanted to rely on his own efforts and continue to train.

For Saint-level undead, as long as they devoured enough souls, once their own soul reached a certain level of strength, they would become Saints.

But to go from being a Saint to a Deity required an understanding of the Laws. For Yale and Bebe’s parents, they held no understanding at all regarding these matters, and so naturally they chose to fuse with a divine spark to become a Deity.

Linley was anxious and impatient by now. Everyone else had arrived, but his father, ‘Hogg’, had yet to come. Linley had even gone to ask the Chief Sovereign of Death, but the Chief Sovereign of Death had only told him to keep waiting.

“Swish!” A black, sword-shaped metallic lifeform ﬂew over at high speed.

Within was the Saint-level Black Knight, ‘Hogg’, as well as the silver-haired youth. Hogg had already become a Deity, but of course, he had done so by fusing with a divine spark. Hogg had a very low level of insight into the Laws, and he would probably spend countless years without being able to become a Deity on his own.

“We are arriving up ahead.” The silver-haired youth said with a calm laugh. “This mission is ﬁnally at an end.”

“Thank you.” Hogg still bowed gratefully.

“Why thank me?” The silver-haired youth made the metallic lifeform disappear with a thought. Hogg and the silver-haired youth appeared in midair, not too far away from the Abyssal Inn, and right at this moment, a blur suddenly moved through the skies, so fast as to badly startle the silver-haired youth. The blur solidiﬁed in front of them.

“Hm?” Hogg looked carefully at the person before him.

The man in front of him was dressed in sky-blue robes, and had long brown hair. His face looked exactly as it had in the past. “He is…?” But Hogg still didn’t dare believe it. He had the feeling…as though the person in front of him had just teleported to him. Even this Seven Star Specter by his side was not capable of such speed. How could this expert be his son?

“You…you are…?” The silver-haired youth was rather frightened. But Linley’s gaze was locked on Hogg!

In Linley’s mind, one scene after another appeared. His father’s resoluteness and loneliness. Back then, he had protected Linley and Wharton, those two children.

His father’s request to him. His hope that Linley would acquire the warblade ‘Slaughterer’.

His father’s bitterness, hidden within his heart, which he had borne alone.

His father’s death. Only a letter had been left behind, and only when reading it had Linley learned how tragic his father’s life had been.

…….

Linley stared at the man in front of him, so excited his eyes turned moist.

“Father!” Linley called out. Hogg stared in disbelief at the person in front of him. When he died, Linley was just a youth. Although Hogg could somewhat see traces of the features of the young Linley in the face of the man before him, in terms of demeanor as well as everything else, the current Linley, one of the supreme Deities of the universe, was far too different from when he had been a child.

“Linley? It, it is you?” Hogg couldn’t help but feel stunned and excited as he looked closely at Linley.

“It’s me, father!” Linley was no longer able to control himself, and his tears came falling down.

Yale, George, Bebe, and the others just watched from afar, smiling as they saw father and son reunite again, after three thousand years had passed.

Coiling Dragon Book 19 – Metamorphosis

Chapter 1, Desire

Chapter 2, Flamebone Mountain

Chapter 3, Target

Chapter 4, Redcliff Lord

Chapter 5, Sudden Emergence

Chapter 6, Unstoppable

Chapter 7, A Blaze

Chapter 8, The Storm Gathers

Chapter 9, A Battle Between Supreme Experts of the Earth

Chapter 10, The Final, Supreme Technique!

Chapter 11, Victory and Defeat

Chapter 12, Four Badge Colors

Chapter 13, Dangerous

Chapter 14, Ambushed

Chapter 15, A Choice

Chapter 16, Murderous Blows!

Chapter 17, Hemmers

Chapter 18, List of Names

Chapter 19, An Untended Willow Grows

Chapter 20, A Tranquil Heart

Chapter 21, Flee on Sight

Chapter 22, Sixty Years in the Planar Battleﬁeld

Chapter 23, Three Person Squad

Chapter 24, A Dead End? A New Beginning!

Chapter 25, Innate Divine Ability

Chapter 26, The First Battle

Chapter 27, A Change

Chapter 28, Five Hundred Years

Chapter 29, Four Against One

Chapter 30, Canteen?

Chapter 31, The Number One Clan

Chapter 32, What’s This?

Chapter 33, A Battle

Chapter 34, A Battle of Attrition?

Chapter 35, A Rock

Chapter 36, Blood Binding, Crown

Chapter 37, Supreme Technique

Chapter 38, An Inch of Land, A Foot of Sky

Chapter 39, Blueﬁre

Chapter 40, Will

Chapter 41, High Spirits

Chapter 42, A Nightmare Descends

Chapter 43, Attacked and Killed

Chapter 44, Results

Chapter 45, Arrangements

Chapter 46, The Unﬁnished Battle

Chapter 47, Suicidal?

Chapter 48, The Death of Linley

Chapter 49, The Line Between Life and Death

Chapter 50, A Terrifying Tenacity

Chapter 51, Metamorphosis – Breaking Through the Cocoon, Becoming a Butterﬂy!

Chapter 52, The Path to the Peak

Chapter 53, Spiritual Power!

Chapter 54, Disappearing In a Blink of an Eye

Chapter 55, The Experts By the Banks of the Stellar River

Chapter 56, Bebe’s Request

Chapter 57, The Final Battle

Chapter 58, Linley’s Power

Chapter 59, The Duel Above the Stellar River

Chapter 60, The Most Powerful Technique!

Chapter 61, Gathering Point

Chapter 62, Who Is Alive, Who Is Dead?

Chapter 63, Return

Chapter 64, Gathered From Many Places

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