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

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “What?!” Borte’s face changed dramatically. “Bang!” Linley’s fist smashed onto Borte’s head. A weak little Lesser Sovereign of Fire, in front of Linley, wasn’t able to fight back at all.

  “Fire-type Sovereign spark.” In virtually the same instant as he struck out, Linley sent a drop of his blood into that Lesser Sovereign spark. His gaze was sharp. “By now, I have no other options. Only by fusing with his fire-type Sovereign spark will I be able to rise in power yet again!”

  Linley had no other choices. He didn’t want to die. Once he died, Beirut, Bluefire, and even the Four Divine Beasts clan and Linley’s family members… who knew what would happen to them?

  Thus, Linley had to act. There were quite a few Sovereigns of Fire present, but the only one Linley felt antipathy towards was Borte. Thus, without hesitating at all, he chose that poor bastard.

  “Rumble…”

  The world began to change yet again. Countless amounts of fire elemental essences swirled about in midair as the fire-type Sovereign spark entered the divine fire clone in Linley’s body. It only took an instant to refine a Sovereign spark, and so Linley’s souls once more began to transform, and Will once more flooded his soul. Aside from this…

  “Four types of Sovereign power… FUSE!”

  92

  A NEW NAME (PART 2)

  Within Linley’s body, four types of Sovereign power instantly began to bubble and froth.

  “Linley, by fusing with a Lesser Sovereign spark of fire, you’ll just gain a bit more Will. Without an Overgod artifact, there is no way you are capable of withstanding my blow.” The Chief Sovereign of Fate’s body was once more surrounded by those four illusory swords, which began to rotate around him.

  But Linley only closed his eyes, the muscles on his face twitching slightly. “These, these four types of Sovereign power…”

  In the past, the uniqueness of the fusion of four types of divine power made Linley feel certain… that upon fusing four types of Sovereign power, there would definitely be a unique product as well. But the uniqueness of it completely surpassed Linley’s imagination.

  “Crackle…” After the four types of Sovereign power fused, they instantly transformed into a unique, gray, foggy sort of energy. This gray energy wildly filled every inch of Linley’s body. His bones, his skin, his blood vessels, his organs… even his mind and his soul.

  Linley’s flesh was trembling. His entire body was twitching. “Crackle…” It transformed his muscles, his bones, and every tiny, minute part of him. Earth-shaking changes were occurring in his body, and in virtually every second, Linley’s body would be strengthened hundreds of times. He was constantly rising in power and gaining in strength. In front of the gray energy created by the four types of fused Sovereign power, Linley’s body seemed to respond by simply growing stronger, stronger, stronger…

  “Careful, Linley,” Beirut’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind. Linley opened his eyes. “Swish!” That Fate Overgod Sword, flowing with four types of colors, had already arrived in front of Linley. “Slash!” Linley’s clothes shattered… and on Linley’s chest, the Fate Overgod Sword left behind a single bloody scratch.

  “What!” The eyes of the Chief Sovereign of Fate and the others all widened. “How can this be?” The Sovereigns who were spectating this battle were completely stupefied. The unsurpassed supreme technique of Orloff, ‘Samsara Transcendence’, in front of Linley was only… only able to just barely scrape open Linley’s skin?

  “Crackle…” That bloody scratch instantly healed, while at the same time, Linley’s body continued to strengthen. His bones, his muscles… every component of his insides was constantly shattering and reforming, rising in power time and time again. Each rise in power was terrifyingly great, and yet, they seemed to happen without end. Large amounts of gray energy were being used up by Linley’s body.

  “I’ve researched for countless years to develop this, my most powerful sword attack. How… how can it be that I’m not even able to pierce into his skin? Impossible… impossible!!!” Orloff couldn’t help but begin to bellow. He actually swept out with his Fate Overgod Sword to attack Linley yet again, and the quad-colored sword illusions once more manifested, resulting into that terrifying sword!

  “Slash.” The Overgod sword once more slashed out onto Linley’s body. But this time… it didn’t even break his skin.

  Orloff and the others all stared at Linley, stunned. “Rumble…” The space around Linley trembled violently, unleashing a wave of energy that actually knocked Orloff flying away. As for Linley, he stood there silently in the center of that wave of energy, his eyes closed, like an invincible divinity of war.

  “Inconceivable. Inconceivable.” Linley, after receiving that blow from his enemy, completely focused on his self-transformation. His body was undergoing a heaven-shaking evolution. Linley had expected this, but he had never imagined… that his Sovereign sparks would actually melt!

  Right. They melted, as though they were ice cubes. The Sovereign sparks were indestructibly tough, and none had ever been destroyed despite the passage of countless years. But they were actually beginning to melt!

  Surrounded by that gray energy, Linley’s four fused Sovereign sparks actually began to melt. The four sword-shaped souls that were within the Sovereign sparks were revealed, and the four sword-shaped souls, as well as the sword-shaped soul of the main body, also began to transform after becoming submerged into that gray energy. It was as though they were breaking free from a cocoon and becoming a butterfly…

  Slowly… the five hovering sword-shaped souls actually fused together, merging like flowing liquids, then finally transforming into a single sword-shaped soul. This sword-shaped soul began to change in color. First, it was azure; then it was earthen yellow; next, it became jade; afterwards, it became red; and in the end, it became completely translucent. A virtually invisible, translucent, sword-shaped soul.

  “Bang.” Linley’s four Sovereign clones, bereft of both Sovereign sparks and souls, completely collapsed. Only one body was now remaining, and a single, translucent sword-shaped soul. This transformation had used up a great deal of that gray energy.

  “Completely inconceivable.” Although his souls had merged together and he had even lost his Sovereign spark, Linley could clearly sense the existences of all four Elemental Seas. He could effortless pull four types of Sovereign power from them, and not just that; Linley could even sense the Elemental Sea of Light, the Elemental Sea of Darkness… and all the other planes that served as wellsprings for power. Linley, with but a thought, could summon every type of Sovereign power.

  “My power of Will is gone?” Linley discovered that after his Sovereign sparks were consumed and his souls were transformed into one, his original Will had vanished. Only… Linley sensed a unique sort of control over the surrounding space. This feeling of control was like… this part of the world was his own domain. He didn’t need Will. He didn’t need anything else. He could simply use the power of the world to constrict any enemies and kill them all.

  “Im… impossible!” Orloff, who had always been invincible, seemed to have gone berserk. He was repeatedly using his Overgod weapon to strike towards Linley, but the energy wave emanating from Linley’s body forced him to stay far away, and he was unable to draw near.

  All of the Sovereigns watching this were rendered completely speechless. What had happened just now had completely surpassed their expectations. The power that Linley had revealed surpassed the realm of Sovereigns.

  “Has he become an Overgod?” the Chief Sovereign of Death murmured. The nearby Chief Sovereign of Destruction’s chin rose, and he blinked repeatedly. “Can it be that living creatures can actually train to the Overgod level?”

  “Haha. Wonderful.” Bluefire and Beirut, within the Skyrite Mountains, watched as Orloff attacked like a madman, but wasn’t even able to get close to Linley. They couldn’t help but feel wildly overjoyed.

  “Are you done?”

  A calm, qui
et voice rang out. Linley, surrounded by that energy wave, opened his eyes and looked at Orloff, who stood before him. In this moment, Linley seemed like a sword. After his soul had transformed, a sword intent seemed to burst out from him. Just looking at Linley made their hearts quiver.

  “Uh?” The Chief Sovereign of Fate violently swung out his hand with his Fate Overgod Sword, only to realize… he couldn’t move. Because Linley’s right hand had clutched onto the Fate Overgod Sword.

  “This Overgod sword…” Linley let out a sigh. He suddenly had a strange feeling, as though this Overgod sword wasn’t all that tough. Linley’s right hand applied just a bit of pressure. “CRACK!”

  A clear, ringing sound. What it represented… was that the exalted, incomparable Overgod artifact had actually been snapped by Linley in half.

  “How ordinary.” Linley tossed it aside casually, and the half of the Overgod sword in his hands fell from the skies, landing into the seas below. “Plonk.” It sank into the seas.

  All of the spectating Sovereigns were once more rendered speechless. Even the Chief Sovereign of Fate stared, stunned, at the remaining half of the Overgod sword that he held. “This… how can this…” As soon as his words rang out…

  “Swish!” Orloff’s body suddenly transformed into a streak of light, as he fled into the distance at high speed. Even now, Orloff still held a faint hope that he could stay alive… his homeland was a material plane, and he wanted to flee into it. Orloff was going to continue his research, until the day came when he surpassed Linley.

  He felt that although Linley’s attack power had increased, his speed hadn’t necessarily increased. Unfortunately…

  “You want to flee?” Linley’s body flashed, and he actually traversed countless kilometers in a single instant, arriving before Orloff. His speed was countless times faster than Orloff.

  The resolute, unyielding look in Orloff’s eyes turned dim. “I lost. Completely lost.” He understood that Linley, who was able to easily break apart the Fate Overgod Sword, definitely would also be able to easily breach his defensive Overgod armor. The eyes of the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, suddenly lit up again, and he stared at Linley. “Linley… I hope that you will use your most powerful attack to kill me.”

  Although they were enemies, Linley still felt a hint of admiration for Orloff. Admiration for how insane he was. “Fine, then. I will use my most powerful attack to kill you.”

  Linley pressed two fingers together, forming a ‘sword’ with them. A blurry gray sword that was around 1.5 meters in length slowly emerged. As soon as this illusion of a blurry gray sword emerged, the surrounding space began to tremble and fracture into countless pieces.

  Orloff stared intently at the illusory sword, his attention focused. “Whoosh!” The sword pierced through the air. Linley’s most powerful sword attack was finally unleashed… his ‘Sword Intent’, fused with four types of power!

  “BANG!” A terrifying explosion rang out. An unprecedented explosion! Linley’s sword seemed to have created a terrifying change in the world! An enormous, terrifying black hole that was nearly ten thousand kilometers in circumference appeared before Linley. Countless amounts of dense gray energy emerged from this hole, pouring into the Infernal Realm and spreading out towards every direction.

  “Not good!” This gray energy spread out so quickly that in virtually an instant, it traversed countless millions of kilometers. The eleven Sovereigns who were just slightly too slow in fleeing were touched by it, and anything the gray energy touched was instantly transformed into nothingness. Even their Sovereign sparks were melted away into nothingness and disappeared. This entire region was completely transformed into a region of death.

  “Just now, just now…” The Chief Sovereigns of Death and Destruction, and the various other survivors, were so terrified that their faces turned white. Just now, the terrifying black hole that Linley’s sword had created had spewed out limitless amounts of gray energy, which had represented annihilation. Anything touched by the gray energy, whether ordinary Deities or mighty Sovereigns, and even inanimate rocks and water, were transformed into nothingness.

  “One step slower, and we would’ve all died.” The Chief Sovereign of Destruction remained extremely tense.

  “Just now… what was that?” The surviving Sovereigns were completely terrified. Although they had seen how powerful Linley was, they had never been so terrified as they were now. The black hole that had suddenly vomited forth that gray energy was simply too terrifying. “The nearer Sovereigns all died. Not even their Sovereign sparks remain.” The Chief Sovereign of Death’s face was ashen. “And that Linley… he, he was surrounded by that gray energy and transformed into nothingness as well.”

  The gray energy created a region that Sovereigns couldn’t use their divine sense to scan. These Sovereigns didn’t know as to what had happened, exactly, when the gray energy had spread out within that region. But there was one thing they were certain of; everything within that region had been transformed into nothingness.

  “Linley!” Beirut’s face was ashen. Bluefire’s face was completely bloodless as well. They had never imagined… that such an awe-inspiring turn of events would occur. Linley, whose power had suddenly skyrocketed, actually then vanished within that terrifying gray energy and disappeared.

  By now, the gray energy was flooding back towards the black hole. It completely vanished, and even the black hole was slowly shrinking, before finally disappearing as well. The terrifying energy wave caused astonishment in the entire Infernal Realm.

  “… WHERE IS THIS PLACE?”

  Linley stared at his surroundings. The surrounding space was filled with that strange, foggy gray energy. His own four types of Sovereign power had joined together and formed this exact same type of energy, which had then transformed his body and soul. Just now, his sword attack seemed to have shattered the skies, allowing this energy to cause the deaths of the many Sovereigns.

  Linley turned to look, then saw a translucent membrane. At the opposite side of the translucent membrane was chaotic space. “I… where am I?”

  Linley’s gaze suddenly turned sharp as he stared in front of himself. Because… someone had appeared in front of him. This person was dressed in unadorned hemp clothes. He had a head full of wild, tousled hair. This middle-aged man’s face had an extremely excited smile. “Haha… it has been a thousand Grand Kalpas, but my waiting is finally at an end.”

  “A thousand Grand Kalpas?” Linley was completely confused. “Second Brother, come with me.” The middle-aged man smiled, then extended a hand. He grabbed Linley by the arm, pulling him forward at high speed.

  What astonished Linley was, every single step this middle-aged man took covered a limitless amount of distance. His speed was incomprehensibly faster than Linley’s.

  “Why do you address me as ‘Second Brother’?” Linley looked at him, puzzled. “And who are you?”

  “Haha… because you are the very first person, after the passage of countless years, who was able to break through the bindings of the Cosmos and enter this place, this Hongmeng Grandmist,” the middle-aged man said with a clear laugh.

  “What is the ‘Cosmos’?” Linley hurriedly asked. “You said I broke through the bindings of the cosmos. Are you saying… that the countless planes I live in comprise the Cosmos?”

  “To be more precise, the countless material planes, the Seven Divine Planes, the Four Higher Planes, the various minor planes, and chaotic space; they combine to form a whole, which can be referred to as the Cosmos,” the middle-aged man smiled as he spoke. “As for this energy? I refer to it as the Grandmist spirit-energy.”

  Linley took a deep breath. Indeed… the Chief Sovereign of Fate had sensed that it seemed as though an invisible hand was controlling the countless planes, and had wanted to break free from this control. It now seemed as though the invisible hand was the mysterious middle-aged man in front of Linley.

  “Grandmist spirit-energy?” Linley stared carefully at
the primal gray energy. “My home is up ahead.” The middle-aged man pointed towards the front. In the center of that endless amount of primal energy, there was an island that was only a few dozen meters in circumference. This island had a thatched cottage built atop it, and by the side of the cottage, there was a thick, gnarled dwarf tree. Beneath the tree was a stone table and two stone benches.

  “Let’s sit first, then chat.” The middle-aged man laughed as he sat. Linley, filled with questions, sat down as well.

  “Take a look.” The middle-aged man waved his hand, and instantly, a watery mirror formed. A giant sphere emerged from the mirror, and this sphere was surrounded by four much smaller spheres. The middle-aged man laughed as he pointed towards the small sphere on the right. “This is the Cosmos you live in!”

  “What?!” Linley stared, slack-jawed. “There are three other Cosmos like mine? And an even larger one?” Linley was truly stunned.

  “The Cosmos in the center is the main Cosmos, while the four Cosmos surrounding it are secondary Cosmos. They are only a tenth of the size of the main one.” The middle-aged man smiled. “The various Cosmos all exist within the Hongmeng Grandmist region! As for myself… my name is Hongmeng.”

  “Grandmist?” Linley looked at the middle-aged man.

  “As a matter of fact…” The middle-aged man sighed. “Linley, let me put it to you this way. Long, long ago, this Grandmist region gave birth to me. I was the only living creature within the Grandmist.” Linley nodded slightly.

  “After a long, long period of time, I felt bored. I had a sudden flash of insight, and began to build the Cosmos! First, I built up the main Cosmos, but I felt that by itself, it wasn’t stable enough, and so I then built the four much smaller secondary Cosmos, forming a stable whole.” Linley nodded.

  “The energy I used to build the Cosmos was this Grandmist spirit-energy.” Hongmeng laughed as he pointed towards the primal gray energy. “In the Cosmos, I created the various living creatures. In order to ensure that the various races would be able to develop in equilibrium, I had to set many rules and edicts.” Hongmeng laughed. “For example, in your homeland, the four Overgods in that secondary Cosmos were actually created by myself, based on the four Edicts that I set up. All they are able to do is carry out my orders; they don’t have a shred of emotion at all.”