Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “What happened? Speak clearly,” Linley said hurriedly. “Don’t cry.” Linley could sense that Bebe seemed to still have the mental age of a youngster. He was far from being an adult of whatever race he was.

  Bebe nodded. “I already met Grandpa Beirut. Grandpa Beirut told me that my father was a Stoneater Rat and my mother was a Shadowmouse. They were both very powerful, both at the ninth rank, but someone killed them. They killed both my parents.”

  “Who killed them?” Linley was puzzled.

  “The Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, and the earth-style Grand Magus Saint, Rudi,” Bebe ground his fangs as he spoke.

  Linley was stunned. He immediately thought back to the battle between Saints that occurred at the town of Wushan when he was eight. Linley clearly remembered hearing those two Saints angrily shout at each other. The Warrior Saint was Dillon! And the Grand Magus Saint was Rudi.

  “They killed your parents?” Linley pondered for a moment. Because of that battle, Linley had actually been injured in the head as he was protecting his little brother Wharton. Blood had flowed onto the Coiling Dragon ring, thus allowing Grandpa Doehring to come out of it. Only then had Linley embarked on the path of a magus. After training for nearly half a year, he had discovered Bebe within one of the abandoned courtyards of his residence.

  “Half a year… right. Given Bebe’s growing speed, half a year after being born, he probably would’ve developed from an infant size to the size he was when I first saw him.” In terms of time or location, it all fit. Linley had been puzzled at the time. Why had two Saints come to do battle at the town of Wushan? Now, it seemed, the truth was it had something to do with Bebe’s parents.

  “Why did they kill your parents?” Linley asked.

  Bebe didn’t answer immediately. “Boss, the Forest of Darkness is the lair for all rat-type magical beasts. Although the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts has many rats within it, it can’t compare to the number in the Forest of Darkness.”

  Linley nodded silently when he heard this. Rat-type magical beasts were highly adept at reproducing in large numbers. Wherever magical beasts congregated, there would be rat swarms as well.

  “Although it doesn’t have that many, there’s still over ten million of them in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts,” Bebe said. Even just a part of the total number in the Forest of Darkness reached the hundreds of millions, while the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts only had ten million. The difference was plain to see.

  Bebe continued, “There aren’t any Saint-level rats in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. The leader of those ten million rats were my parents, a Stoneater Rat and a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank.”

  Linley and Delia both understood. It made sense for there to be roughly a single pair of ninth-rank rats amongst a swarm of ten million.

  “The Stellar Sword Saint Dillon and that Grand Magus Saint Rudi both were looking to tame magical beasts for themselves. The Stellar Sword Saint Dillon discovered my parents, and thus wanted to tame them. After all, taming them meant taming a swarm of ten million rats.” Bebe’s eyes were burning with hate.

  Linley, on the other hand, understood how Dillon had felt. A rat swarm of ten million rats could match an army of millions of soldiers in power. Although a Black Dragon of the ninth rank was technically equal in rank to a Stoneater Rat or a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, most likely most experts would rather choose the Stoneater Rat or the Shadowmouse as tamed companions.

  “Unfortunately, my mother was pregnant at the time.” Bebe ground his fangs. “Rat Kings are very proud. My father, relying on his tough defense, went to block the Stellar Sword Saint Dillon to allow my mother to flee.”

  The defense of Stoneater Rats was quite terrifying. One of the ninth rank would be hard for even an average Saint to kill.

  “My father was a Rat King. Naturally, the Stellar Sword Saint wanted to tame him, and so my father and he began to fight. But my father refused to submit, and kept on fighting with him… and in the end, the Stellar Sword Saint killed my father,” Bebe sobbed.

  One could imagine how arrogant and proud a Rat King who commanded a rat swarm was. He had delayed as long as he could to allow Bebe’s mother time to flee.

  “Shadowmice are famous for their speed. My mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, and she was very fast. Even though she was pregnant, she managed to escape from the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts while my father fought with Dillon and flee to the west, eventually arriving at the town of Wushan.

  “My mother was perhaps afraid that I would be attacked, so she utilized the mageforce in her body to give birth to me prematurely.” Bebe’s eyes were welling with tears. “Grandpa Beirut said that when we ‘Godeater Rats’ are born in the normal course of things, we should have the power of a magical beast of the sixth or seventh rank upon being born.”

  Linley was puzzled. Godeater Rat? What type of race was this? Was this Bebe’s race? But seeing the mental state Bebe was in, Linley didn’t interrupt him, saving the question for later.

  “After giving birth to me prematurely, my mother’s body was internally wounded. Given the situation, my mother instructed me to stay in that ruined courtyard and not to run around. As an infant, nobody knew anything about me, so I was to just eat rocks there as I quietly grow up.”

  “My mother told me that she was of the Beirut clan, and that I was also a member of the Beirut clan.” Bebe was torn between rage and grief. “For the sake of not letting me come to harm, she left me there, then continued to flee to the west. But unfortunately… that’s when she ran into the Grand Magus Saint, Rudi. Rudi naturally chased after my mother as well, planning to take her as his own magical beast companion.”

  Linley could imagine what that scene had been like.

  “My mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, but having just given birth to me her power had dropped dramatically. She ran east as fast as she could, but right at that moment Dillon arrived as well. Dillon, being a warrior, was able to rely on certain speed techniques to seize my mother.” Bebe grew agitated and angry. “And then, that Dillon and Rudi, for the sake of fighting over who the Shadowmouse of the ninth rank belonged to, began to battle.”

  Linley completely understood now. The Stellar Sword Saint Dillon had captured the Shadowmouse, but Rudi had wanted to take it from him. The two Saints battled in the eastern skies above the town of Wushan, which had been a catastrophe for its people. Even Wharton had nearly been crushed to death, but fortunately, Linley had protected him. In turn, Linley had been lucky enough to have the Coiling Dragon ring be blood-bound to him as a result.

  “Right.” Linley still recalled how, in his youth, he had heard the Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, shout angrily: “Rudi, if I can’t have it, then you won’t either!” Dillon’s hands had then suddenly glowed with light, followed by the sound of a terrifying explosion which had rocked the world.

  “Right. Shadowmice are physically small. In battle, they can enlarge themselves slightly, but normally, they are like Bebe, roughly twenty centimeters or so, the size of a palm.” Linley knew the complete truth now.

  At the time, Bebe’s mother had been in Dillon’s palm. Back then, Dillon had been over a kilometer away from Linley. Linley couldn’t even make out Dillon’s figure, much less what Dillon was holding in his hands.

  Shadowmice were famed for their speed and their attack, but their defense wasn’t all that powerful, far weaker than Stoneater Rats. When the Saint-level Dillon had unleashed his battle-qi, a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank who had been weakened dramatically by childbirth had of course been easily killed.

  “So the truth comes out!” Linley understood everything now. He knew why those two Saints had come to the eastern skies of the town of Wushan to do battle. At the time, when Dillon had angrily shouted, “Rudi, if I can’t have it, you can’t either!” he was referring to Bebe’s mother.

  Half a year after that battle… Linley had encountered Bebe. And then, the legendary adventures of Linley and Bebe ha
d begun.

  “No wonder. No wonder.” Linley now also understood why Bebe said his enemies were Rudi and Dillon. If it wasn’t for Dillon, Bebe’s father wouldn’t have died. And if it hadn’t been for Rudi… perhaps Bebe’s mother wouldn’t have been forced to her death as well.

  Linley looked at Bebe, whose eyes were filled with tears. He furiously said, “Those two bastards, I’ll definitely kill them!”

  “Hrm?” Linley was suddenly filled with all sorts of questions. Bebe’s father was a Stoneater Rat of the ninth rank, while his mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank. Why was Bebe so powerful? Bebe didn’t seem like a Stoneater Rat or a Shadowmouse. He had easily reached an extremely high level of power, and he was continuing to grow stronger.

  In addition… only Dillon and Rudi should have known what happened back then, as well as Bebe’s dead parents. How was it that upon returning from the Forest of Darkness, Bebe knew all this? How did that Deity in the Forest of Darkness know all of these things? Could it be that the spiritual power of the Deity was so great that it could even stretch over ten thousand kilometers, from the Forest of Darkness to the town of Wushan?

  Even if it was a Deity really able to maintain such a dispersal of spiritual power for so long? And if he had discovered this at that time, why hadn’t he saved Bebe’s parents? “Bebe, how did you learn this?” Linley immediately asked. Delia was looking at Bebe in puzzlement as well.

  “Grandpa Beirut told me,” Bebe replied.

  Linley asked questioningly, “This Lord Beirut… even though he is a Deity, he shouldn’t have the ability to look into the past. How did he know about this? And it seems he knows all the details.”

  Bebe explained, “Boss, it’s like this. After Grandpa Beirut discovered me, he sent the Violet-Gold Rat Kings to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. First, they questioned the members of the rat swarm, and then Grandpa Beirut personally scanned the memories of Dillon and Rudi.”

  “What?!” Linley and Delia both let out cries of shock. Memory scan?! A Grand Magus Saint like Zassler was able to read memories, true, but after doing so the affected person’s soul would be destroyed and he would die. However… the Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, was perfectly well and alive. He had even been beaten by Olivier years later. In addition, if Dillon and Rudi had died, that would have been a major event. Linley definitely would’ve heard about this.

  “Grandpa Beirut is very powerful,” Bebe explained. “He said that no one below the Deity level would be able to hide any of their memories front him. Even Saints would have their memories read without them knowing about it at all.”

  Linley didn’t dare believe it. This… this was too terrifying! Even Saints wouldn’t be able to notice? Linley absolutely refused to believe a mere Demigod was capable of such a power.

  “Grandpa Beirut is the number one expert of the entire Yulan continent plane,” Bebe explained. “The absolute, unquestioned number one expert. Even the War God and the High Priest have to listen to Grandpa. Even the Planar Overseer, Hodan, doesn’t dare to offend Grandpa Beirut. Grandpa Beirut is the true King of the plane of the Yulan continent.”

  Linley and Delia exchanged a glance. Linley suddenly remembered the words that the three Violet-Gold Rat Kings had said to Bebe when they had invited him to come with them. They had also said the same thing. Lord Beirut was the King of the Yulan continent!

  “Grandpa Beirut was the very first Godeater Rat in all the planes of the universe! Even the very name ‘Godeater Rat’ was chosen by Grandpa Beirut himself,” Bebe said proudly. “And in the countless planes of the universe, I am the second Godeater Rat!”

  4

  Deity-level Magical Beast

  “Godeater Rat?” Linley and Delia glanced at each other. The number one expert of the Yulan continent, Beirut, was actually a ‘Godeater Rat’. Just from the name, Linley knew that this had to be an extremely terrifying type of creature. ‘Godeater’. How would a common magical beast dare to name himself something like this? Linley gazed curiously at Bebe.

  Delia asked questioningly as well. “Bebe, your father and mother were magical beasts of the ninth rank, right? This… what is going on?”

  “Boss, this is somewhat like your Dragonblood Warrior clan, but of course there are differences,” Bebe explained in detail. “After Grandpa Beirut was born, because he was the only Godeater Rat in existence, him and Grandma Carolina had three children. Harry, Hart, and Harvey, the three Violet-Gold Rat Kings.”

  Linley memorized the name, ‘Carolina’.

  “Because Grandma Carolina herself wasn’t a Godeater Rat, the children she had with Grandpa Beirut naturally weren’t pure Godeater Rats either. Thus, their level became lower. Normally, Violet-Gold Rat Kings, upon reaching the age of maturity, would be Saint-level magical beasts,” Bebe explained.

  “Their level became lower?” Linley asked. “Bebe, so you mean to say…?” Delia’s eyes widened. She was very smart as well. She also knew what Bebe was implying.

  His eyes filled with arrogance, he said, “Right, Godeater Rats are Deity-level magical Beasts! Even without engaging in any training at all, just through natural growth… upon reaching full adulthood, Godeater Rats will reach the Deity level!”

  “Deity-level magical beast?” Linley was stunned. This was too insane, even more insane than the Four Supreme Warriors! The Four Supreme Warriors could reach the peak of the Saint level so long as they trained, true, and Saint-level magical beasts, upon reaching adulthood, would reach the Saint level as well… but Deity-level magical beasts would become Deities upon reaching adulthood!?!

  “This is too unfair to other races. How can other races possibly contend?” Linley sighed repeatedly in his heart. They really lived up to the name of ‘Godeater Rats’. They reached the Deity level at adulthood? They really were blessed by the heavens.

  Bebe shook his head. “Grandpa Beirut said that there is no way Deity-level magical beasts can form an entire race. Generally speaking, each Deity-level magical beast is the only one of its kind! Because Grandpa Beirut was the only one of his kind, he couldn’t possibly find another female Godeater Rat to be his wife.”

  “His children’s bloodline was impure. They could only become Saint-level Violet-Gold Rat Kings.”

  “And all three of the Violet-Gold Rat Kings were male, so their children’s bloodline was even less pure, only able to reach the level of magical beast of the ninth rank. In the Forest of Darkness, however, there are quite a few female rats of the ninth rank. As they mated, many of their children would naturally be able to reach the ninth rank as well. My mother was also a member of the Beirut clan, only she came ten generations after Harry, Hart, and Harvey.” Bebe didn’t seem to speak of Harry and the other two as his ancestors.

  Linley nodded. Indeed, in reality, Harry and the others were many generations above Bebe… but Bebe himself was a Godeater Rat. Aside from Beirut, he was the only Godeater Rat in existence.

  “As for me being a Godeater Rat,” Bebe said innocently, “According to what Grandpa Beirut said, my mother carried a bit of the Beirut lineage to begin with, and then mated with a Stoneater Rat of the ninth rank. Perhaps there was some sort of mutation or ‘genetic throwback’.”

  “After all, many rats of the ninth rank had mated with each other, but it seems as though aside from myself, none of them have become Godeater Rats,” Bebe said innocently. “Not just in the Yulan continent, mind you. In all of the countless planes that Grandpa Beirut has gone to.”

  “Countless planes?” Linley and Delia exchanged glances. Lord Beirut was simply too terrifying. Based on his conversation with Hodan, Linley knew that it was extremely hard for one to return upon departing to the Higher Planes. But from what Bebe was telling him, it sounded as though Beirut had not only left the Yulan continent, he had also gone to many other planes.

  “No wonder he is reputed to be the King of the Yulan continent, and why even the War God and the High Priest must obey his orders,” Linley secretly thought to himself.
“What level of expert is he? A full God? Or perhaps even… a Highgod?”

  Advancing from the Demigod-level to the God-level was something that the High Priest had been unable to accomplish despite training for ten thousand years. One could imagine how hard it was. As for advancing from being a full God to a Highgod, the difficult was even greater.

  “The chances of being born as a Deity-level magical beast is far lower than even that of becoming a Supreme Warrior.” Linley sighed. “Although Supreme Warriors occur rarely in our lineage, they’ll still occasionally be born. But Godeater Rats… in all the planes your Grandpa Beirut has visited, he has seen no Godeater Rats aside from you and Lord Beirut himself.”

  Linley and Delia both sighed. Deity-level magical beasts were far rarer than Saint-level magical beasts, but it made sense. If Deity-level magical beasts reproduced so easily, then no other races would be able to survive.

  “Each Deity-level magical beast is generally the only one of its kind, such as that King of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, Dylin. He’s also a Deity-level magical beast,” Bebe said.

  “Dylin?” Linley and Delia couldn’t help but grow curious. To this very day, Linley didn’t know that it was he himself who had released Dylin.

  Bebe nodded. “Dylin is also a Deity-level magical beast. He is known as the ‘Suanni Lion’, and is also known as the ‘Heaven Devouring Beast’”. One was named ‘Godeater Rat’, the other a ‘Heaven Devouring Beast’. These names were all too terrifying.

  ”Grandpa Beirut said that Dylin is very powerful, and can easily swallow an entire mountain or an entire city with a single gulp.” Bebe sighed. “But just like us Godeater Rats, he isn’t able to find another ‘Heaven Devouring Beast’. He has children of his own. He originally had five of them, and all of them, like Violet-Gold Rat Kings, are peak Saint-level magical beasts.”

  Linley and Delia both understood. The children of Deity-level magical beasts were impure in blood, and so their strength was lower. But despite their strength being lower, they were still the cream of the crop amongst Saint-level magical beasts.