Lord of the Mists: Book 8 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “Bang!” The Lord of the Bluelion Domain’s body suddenly began to blaze with an earthen yellow aura.

  Earth-type Sovereign’s Might!

  “You have it; do you think I do not?” Russell let out a cold laugh as well, and his body also began to blaze with a faint green aura. Since he had dared to come issue this challenge, Russell naturally had also prepared in advance.

  And then…

  “Screeeeech!” An ear-piercing sound suddenly rang out from Russell’s throat.

  An enormous, cyan-furred fox phantom, hundreds of meters in size, suddenly appeared behind Russell. This cyan-furred fox had nine furry tails, all of which were swaying gently. Anyone who stared at them would actually, unknowingly, begin to grow dizzy. Quite a few of the spectating Deities actually fell to the ground.

  Innate divine ability – Mesmerizing Fantasy Domain!

  A translucent sword shadow flashed out from Russell’s mouth, shooting directly towards the distant Lord of the Bluelion Domain.

  The Lord of the Bluelion Domain, upon receiving this strike, swayed slightly.

  “Roaaaaar!” The Lord of the Bluelion Domain suddenly let out an enraged howl.

  An enormous, thousand-meter-tall, snowy-furred bear suddenly appeared, its jade green eyes staring towards Russell. The bear smote itself on its chest with its two massive, clawed bear paws. “BANG!” With an enormous collision sound, an earthen yellow ripple blasted out from the bear’s chest in every direction, instantly encompassing an area of many kilometers, with Russell naturally being within this field as well.

  Innate divine ability – World Collapser!

  In the same instant…

  That translucent sword-shape surged into the Lord of Bluelion Domain’s body, but the Lord of Bluelion Domain’s body only trembled. It didn’t seem to have much of an impact on him.

  “Bastard. How could this fellow’s soul defense be so strong? How could my full-power attack have had such a limited impact on him?” Russell cursed angrily to himself.

  “Haha…” The Lord of Bluelion Domain charged towards Russell.

  “Not good.” Russell’s face changed dramatically. He could clearly sense that the surrounding area had changed. That constant surge of ripples seemed to have formed into layers of waves that surged around him, and even created a unique ‘Gravitational Space’ type of effect around him. This technique drastically impacted Russell’s speed.

  Russell knew that the situation was bad, but… it was too late.

  “Haha…” Laughing wildly, the Lord of Bluelion Domain now used his most powerful attack, in conjunction with his unleashed innate divine ability.

  A pair of enormous fists pierced through the skies like a pair of horned dragons, causing spatial whirlpools to appear and space to collapse.

  “Not good.” Russell retreated frantically, but within the innate divine ability field, his speed was inferior to his opponent’s. All he could do was roar in anger and furiously smash out with his blade.

  “BURST!” The Lord of Bluelion Domain let out a furious roar.

  The twin fists that tore through the skies suddenly exploded with power.

  “Bang!” The scimitar actually broke apart, inch by inch, and Russell’s body began to shake.

  “How could this be… I’m finished.” Russell only felt a sense of powerlessness.

  The Lord of Bluelion Domain, Ombarafael suddenly stared towards the front, baffled. “Where… did he go?”

  Russell, who had been in a violent battle against the Lord of Bluelion Domain just moments ago, had now disappeared into thin air.

  “Where did he go? How could this be?”

  “Can it be that the Lord of Bluelion Domain blasted Russell into nothingness?”

  The million plus spectating Deities stared, stupefied. They had watched as Russell had actually disappeared into thin air.

  “Domain Lord?” The black-robed elder immediately flew over, looking towards the Lord of Bluelion Domain.

  Ombarafael, the Lord of Bluelion Domain, immediately turned to look towards Linley’s direction. Only, Linley and the other two had already disappeared. “Indeed, it was the Sovereign who intervened.”

  Just now, the Lord of Bluelion Domain had only sensed a blur flash past. Before he was even able to react, Russell had disappeared.

  “Why did the Sovereign rescue Russell?” The Lord of Bluelion Domain was puzzled, but then he gave the black-robed elder a glance. “Alright. This battle is over. Announce the results.”

  And thus, the Lord of Bluelion Domain led his forces to depart in a grand fashion.

  The Lord of Bluelion Domain was the victor of this battle.

  A MILLION KILOMETERS AWAY, atop a grassland.

  “Bang.” With a casual toss, Linley sent Russell landing heavily on the grass.

  A million kilometers. Given a Sovereign’s speed, at full power, less than a second was needed to traverse this distance.

  Russell had only felt his body tremble. The next thing he saw was that his surroundings had completely changed. There were no spectating Deities nearby, nor was there the Lord of Bluelion Domain, against who he had been battling. The surrounding area was completely empty. Before him was only Linley, Bebe, and ‘Boo’.

  “Thank you, Sovereign!” Russell immediately knelt down towards Linley.

  “Hey… how’d you know my Boss is a Sovereign?” Bebe laughed, puzzled.

  Russell said respectfully, “Just now, I was in dire straits. Everyone else was far away. Not even a Paragon would be able to block the strikes of a commander-level expert from so far away! Only Sovereigns are capable of this!” A Sovereign could kill a commander-level expert from even millions of kilometers away with but a thought, much less from just a few kilometers away.

  Naturally, however, they wouldn’t be able to do that to Paragons.

  Just now, Linley had simply sent out his Will and released a surge of Sovereign power to help Russell slightly, and then had used it to wrap up Russell, then bring him, Bebe, and Boo here instantly.

  “Russell, have you realized what went wrong in that battle?” Linley laughed calmly.

  Russell nodded immediately, a hint of puzzlement flashing through his eyes. “It really was quite odd. I had prepared very thoroughly for this battle; even if I lost, I wouldn’t possibly die. But… I discovered that my innate divine ability, when combined with my most powerful soul attack, actually didn’t have much of an impact on him. This is simply inconceivable.”

  “This is because he has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Linley laughed calmly.

  “Sovereign, he isn’t an Emissary,” the nearby ‘Boo’ said, puzzled.

  “Right. He isn’t an Emissary,” Russell said hurriedly as well. “I investigated this matter long ago. In addition, given Ombarafael’s arrogant nature, if he became a Sovereign’s Emissary, he would definitely announce it right away. He wouldn’t be able to hide it for long.”

  “Do you think that my divine sense was mistaken?” Linley said calmly.

  Russell and Boo immediately no longer dared to argue.

  “Doesn’t that mean I will never be able to defeat him?” Russell couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

  Linley said with a casual laugh, “Russell, I have a test for you. If you participate in it, the chances of death are close to 90%, but if you accept, you will become one of my Emissaries. If you are willing… then upon accepting, even before the trial, I will bestow you with a Sovereign artifact of your choice.”

  Russell’s eyes lit up.

  To a Seven Star Fiend level expert, a Sovereign artifact was extremely alluring.

  “Dare I ask, Sovereign, what is the test?” Russell said hurriedly.

  “It is a Planar War.” Linley immediately began to speak in detail regarding this event. Although he didn’t say anything about ‘ten successive victories’, he gave a full explanation regarding how dangerous this Planar War would be. “Every person will have Sovereign’s Might. Upon entering, you will be in
great danger. You can give up this opportunity, if you choose.”

  Russell hesitated momentarily, then laughed. “Sovereign, I accept! I specialize in speed. Given my innate divine ability, my soul is also extremely strong. If I were to acquire a defensive Sovereign artifact, I imagine that I will have at least a 30% chance of survival. I’m willing to take this gamble. If I fail, at most, I will lose my most powerful divine clone. But if I win…”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  In choosing Emissaries, he had to choose those who particularly excelled in either soul attacks or material attacks. That way, by giving them a Sovereign artifact, he could make up for their deficiency and so increase their chances of survival.

  “Then I will bestow you with a defensive Sovereign artifact.” Linley waved his hand, and a set of Sovereign armor appeared.

  Russell’s eyes immediately began to blaze.

  “Thank you, Sovereign!” Russell immediately knelt down, accepting this Sovereign artifact.

  “Alright. Let’s head out now, in search of the next Emissary.” Linley laughed calmly.

  “The next one?” Russell was startled.

  “This time, we are preparing to find six Emissaries. You are only the first one.” Bebe snickered.

  Linley’s group treated this as a form of tourism as well, touring while choosing acceptable candidates. Upon traveling through the Divine Wind Plane, they would go to the Divine Water Plane, and then would go to the Divine Earth Plane.

  Time slowly passed by.

  “I BESTOW upon you a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. You will become the second Emissary under my control!” Linley withdrew a Sovereign artifact in the shape of an earring as he spoke.

  “Thank you, Sovereign!”

  A bald man whose entire body seemed to be formed from azure rocks fell to his knees.

  “I BESTOW upon you a defensive Sovereign artifact. You will become the third Emissary under my control!” Linley withdrew yet another set of Sovereign armor.

  “Thank you, Sovereign!”

  A jade-haired woman who had a patch of fish scales on her forehead fell to her knees as she spoke.

  Every person Linley selected decided to accept his trial, and so, Linley’s little group was slowly beginning to grow…

  79

  A MEETING

  Linley had already spent more than five hundred years in establishing his divine plane of wind.

  “Whooosh.” A savage wind blew about wantonly, causing the entire area to be in a state of chaos.

  In this blurry, indistinct region, not even the skies or the land had yet to be fully formed. Deep within this blurry space, an indistinct figure could be seen, standing in the center, with rays of faint green light emanating towards every direction from his body, causing this blurry region to constantly expand and stabilize.

  Linley, his eyes shut, just stood there, his long, light green hair billowing about loosely.

  He had stood like this for five centuries now.

  “Wind. Invisible. Formless. It can condense to be as sharp as a blade, but dissipate into nothingness.”

  Within Linley’s mind, multiple sword shadows were constantly flashing about, executing the various insights he had gained.

  An endless torrent of faith power flooded into Linley’s consciousness like a river, causing his understanding of the wind to increase at a shocking rate. In particular, the process of establishing this divine plane of wind had caused Linley to gain many insights, and he had easily broken through many bottlenecks and resolved many difficult questions.

  In the past five hundred years, Linley’s level of understanding regarding the Elemental Laws of the Wind had increased at an astonishing rate.

  This was because Linley had a solid foundation to begin with.

  In five hundred plus years, Linley had reached the level of fusing five profound mysteries of the Elemental Laws of the Wind. But of course, the Elemental Laws of the Wind had nine profound mysteries. Linley could only be considered to have made some minor accomplishments.

  “Haha…”

  Suddenly, loud laughter rang out, echoing within this blurry space, causing it to tremble.

  “After more than five hundred years, I’ve finally, completely fused the ‘Dimensional Attack’ profound mystery, and the Profound Mysteries of Explosion. Now, the Profound Mysteries of Explosion have already completely fused with the other three profound mysteries.” Linley couldn’t help but let a smile appear on his face. In almost an instant, Linley had begun to completely fuse all four profound mysteries into a whole, within his body.

  His understanding regarding the profundities of these four different mysteries began to slowly rise.

  “So that’s how it is!”

  As he meditated, Linley’s development of his most powerful attack, ‘Sword Intent’, began to change as well.

  ‘Sword Intent’. Once the sword struck out, the invisible sword energy would strike out a bit too wantonly, unable to completely condense into a single point.

  But now that he was beginning to fuse all four of the profound mysteries, Linley was able to begin to slowly condense his strike into a single point.

  In the past, when Linley had yet to become a Deity, as his understanding of the profound mysteries grew, his power had risen as well. Now, as his understanding of this fusion of the four profound mysteries grew, Linley’s ‘Sword Intent’ was beginning to rise in power as well.

  “Another four or five centuries will be needed for this plane to be created. This is enough to allow me to rise in power once more.” While establishing his divine plane of wind, Linley was training as well. Not just his wind-type Sovereign clone; even his divine fire clone, his water-type Sovereign clone, and his earth-type Sovereign clone were completely focused on training as well.

  Linley was completely focusing on increasing his strength!

  THE DIVINE EARTH PLANE. Black Tortoise Continent.

  The Black Tortoise Continent was the continent that one of the four ancestors, the Black Tortoise, had controlled. Although the Black Tortoise had perished nearly twenty thousand years ago, the Black Tortoise Continent hadn’t changed.

  Green grass could be seen everywhere, and a group of people was agilely advancing through it.

  The leader was a brown-haired youth, while behind him was four men and two women. This was Sovereign Linley’s party.

  “So that’s how it is.”

  While walking forward, a smile suddenly appeared on Linley’s face. His right hand gestured twice slightly, and a blurred sword ripple shot out from his hands, causing space to instantly shatter.

  “The Sovereign is…?”

  Everyone, Russell and the rest of the six included, were all puzzled. Recently, over the course of their journey, Linley couldn’t help but test out some techniques from time to time. This naturally caused the other six to feel surprised. However, they didn’t dare disturb Linley.

  “Boss, if you are going to train, just have your other clones train. Why must you…” Bebe couldn’t help but speak out.

  Linley, absorbed in the hidden profundities of his new technique, was startled awake. He let out an awkward laugh. “Bebe, I couldn’t help myself!” Now, aside from his original body, the other four clones were completely absorbed in the process of fusing the four types of profound mysteries into a complete whole. Every single day, Linley gained some insights into the fusing of these four Laws.

  The power of his ‘Sword Intent’ technique was, day by day, beginning to slowly rise.

  Power that was increasing perceptibly, every single day… how terrifying was this?

  “Boss, you really are a training fanatic!” Bebe snorted. Then, however, he rubbed his nose and began to laugh. “Still. Boss, don’t be impatient. We’ve already acquired five Emissaries. Only one is missing! The Black Tortoise Continent has more than a thousand Seven Star Fiend level experts. And didn’t you say, Boss, that two of them are fairly close to us, just up ahead?”

  Linley nodde
d.

  He turned to look at the six behind him. Of the six, one was the commander of the Black Tortoise Army, Wilhelm, while the other five were his Emissaries. Of the five Emissaries, three were men while two were women, and they all had their own unique strengths.

  One was a ruler amongst the race of mermaids, a Goldcrest Siren. One was a divine beast, Nine-Tailed Windripper Fox. Another was a female Viva Titan…

  In short, these five were either extremely strong in physical defense or extremely strong in spiritual defense. When given a Sovereign artifact, their flaws were perfectly concealed.

  This was Linley’s prerequisite for his selectees; that he would be able to give them enough power to have a chance to survive in the Planar War.

  “Five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.” Linley let out a sigh. “There are two more up ahead. According to our intelligence reports, they are both Seven Star Godhunters. One is named Bresle, a virtuous, broad-minded fellow. The other, Gansla, can be considered as being at the peak of power for Seven Star Godhunters.”

  This intelligence had been provided to Linley by the commander of the Black Tortoise Army, Wilhelm.

  “Wilhelm, hand over that detailed report on them,” Linley said calmly.

  Earlier, Linley had only reviewed a simplified version of the report; he hadn’t read the detailed one.

  “Bresle trains in the Laws of Light. He is very sincere and kind in his treatment of others, and he is willing to risk his life for his friends. Thus, he has quite a few good friends. Only, I find it strange; despite this sort of temperament, he was actually able to stay alive for so many years. This is inconceivable.” Commander Wilhelm laughed.

  Linley couldn’t help but nod as well.

  If the intelligence reports were correct, then this Bresle could be described as a ‘perfect’ person!

  Bebe mumbled, “For such a good-natured fellow to be able to stay alive in a place as murderous and violent as a Divine Plane, and even reach the Seven Star Fiend level of power… it really is inconceivable.”