Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  The Beholder King’s voice was very gentle, but Desri and the others felt their hearts tremble.

  They knew how powerful Linley was, but Linley hadn’t been able to resist at all in the face of this ‘Beholder King’. Actually, when the Necropolis of the Gods was first constructed and filled, all of the life forms that were qualified to be placed on the seventh and eighth floors were some of the most powerful Saint-level creatures which existed in the countless planes of the universe.

  Different types of life forms naturally had different levels of power.

  For example, the Beholder was extremely talented at dealing against souls.

  “Huh?” The golden eye of the Beholder King suddenly swiveled to stare at Olivier, who had been frozen into an ice cube.

  “BOOM!” Countless shards of ice exploded in all directions.

  His long, black-and-white hair flowing gracefully, Olivier charged out of the ice cube with that mystic icesword in his hands. The Beholder King stared at Olivier in astonishment. “What a strange soul. How is it possible for your soul to be offensive in nature?”

  This was his greatest secret! This was the reason why, after his duel with Haydson, his power had suddenly grown so dramatically! And why he was now capable of simultaneously using the Elemental Laws of Darkness and Light!

  Olivier didn’t say a thing. He transformed into a ray of light as he charged towards Linley.

  Before Olivier arrived, Bebe had already charged to Linley.

  The Beholder King’s attention was totally focused on Olivier, and not even Bebe, who had transformed into a black blur as he had flown towards Linley, tried to stop Olivier. Bebe’s heart was frantic with fear. “Boss, Boss, wake up, wake up!”

  Bebe’s voice was transmitted to Linley’s consciousness.

  Bebe and Linley’s souls were linked, and the reason why they could mentally talk to each other was that their souls were talking to each other.

  Linley’s consciousness, which had been completely frozen, shook slightly, but the gray light quickly expanded in intensity, and the sea of consciousness once more returned to its previous calm, not moving at all.

  “Slash!” Bebe slashed open the ice cube with one claw, the terrifying force of that blow turning the piece of torn-off ice to powder. “Boss, Boss, wake up! Wake up!” Bebe wildly, frantically tried to wake Linley up by calling to him mentally.

  The frozen soul was completely separated from the outside world. Even if his body was destroyed, Linley wouldn’t feel a thing.

  Only this sort of mental communication which a pre-existing soul bond permitted was able to ignore the separation.

  Linley’s sea of consciousness once more shook, and the gray light covering his sea of consciousness once more lit up, but clearly, the intensity of that light was growing dimmer and dimmer. This power which was suppressing the sea of consciousness clearly was constantly consuming energy.

  “Keep on spiritually communicating with Linley. If you keep it up, you should be able to wake him up,” Olivier said to Bebe. “Hurry up and leave.”

  Bebe, carrying ‘Linley’, transformed into a ray of light, fleeing at high speed while constantly calling out to Linley mentally. Finally, in Linley’s mind, his sea of consciousness trembled yet again, and that thin layer of gray light, already stretched to the limit, totally collapsed.

  “Uh, what happened?” Linley was now fully awake.

  He discovered, to his astonishment, that he was currently being carried by an enlarged Bebe, who was flying at high speed.

  “Boss, wake up, wake up!” Bebe was still constantly calling out to him, his eyes filled with tears.

  “Bebe,” Linley spoke back mentally, while now flying on his own.

  Bebe started, and then his little eyes were filled with surprise and joy.

  “What just happened?” Linley was completely lost. He only remembered being struck by that ray of gray light, and then his body turned cold. After that, he remembered nothing. After waking up, he found that he was being carried by Bebe, who was fleeing at high speed.

  “Bang!” From afar came a terrifying explosive sound.

  Many pieces of ice shot out like meteors, howling through the air as they moved at high speed. Linley and Bebe easily dodged past them while turning to stare into the distance. It wasn’t just Linley who had turned to look; even Desri, Fain, the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions, and the other fleeing experts all turned to stare as well.

  When they did, looks of surprised joy appeared on their faces.

  The enormous icy body of the Beholder King had exploded. Clearly, Olivier had shattered it with his sword. Right now, Olivier was currently wielding his longsword in his hand as he stood there in mid-air, his eyes shut.

  “Excellent.” Linley sighed in praise.

  “Olivier, careful,” a Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion shouted loudly. “The actual body of the Beholder King is that eye. That body of ice is only formed from energy.”

  “Haha…”

  That glowing golden eye, floating in mid-air, somehow spoke in a strange voice. “Right. The magical beast speaks correctly. The body of ice is nothing more than something I casually created. Haha, I’ve been in the Necropolis of the Gods for a long time, and I’ve killed quite a few experts, but I’ve never encountered anyone with a soul as unique as yours. Interesting, interesting.”

  Olivier’s eyes remained shut, and a large amount of extremely sparse black energy was emanating in all directions from him.

  He was relying on this dark energy to cover the area and allow him to know the location of the Beholder King. After all, Olivier didn’t dare to stare directly into that golden eye. The closer one was to the golden eye, the more dangerous it would be to stare into it.

  For the likes of Linley who had already fled kilometers away, no matter how good their vision was, they would only be able to hazily make out a golden spot of light. They wouldn’t be affected.

  “Swish!” Black energy covered half of Olivier’s body, while light-style energy covered his other half. His long black-and-white hair rustled as his battle-qi expanded. Olivier, eyes shut, shot out towards the golden eye like an arrow.

  The mystic icesword in his hands chopped down with as much force and vigor as ever. Wherever his longsword passed by, countless patterns in space appeared.

  “Swish.” A dream-like flash of light.

  The golden eye suddenly disappeared, reappearing a hundred meters away. Its speed was so fast that it was even faster than the likes of Bebe, Fain, and Desri by a good amount. The enormous golden eye somehow spoke. “Haha, you want to kill me? In your dreams!” At the same time, a wild, explosive burst of icy energy suddenly began to flow towards the golden eye, instantly forming a ferocious icy whirlpool around it.

  The golden eye was at the heart of this enormous whirlpool.

  Seeing the scene playing out in the distance, Desri, Linley, and the other experts gathered together.

  “Everyone, be careful. Don’t get hit by that gray light.” Desri looked at everyone in the circle. “Everyone, what should we do?”

  Upon seeing how fast that golden eye could move, all the experts present understood that in terms of speed, none of them could match this Beholder King.

  “There’s one final method,” a Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said. “We three brothers can do the same thing as we did in the seventh floor. We’ll simultaneously attack and paralyze that Beholder King. I trust that the Beholder King’s countering abilities won’t be as strong as that of the Queen Mother, Lachapalle.”

  Everyone’s eyes lit up.

  “Although you can paralyze it, even if the Beholder King can’t move, he can still emit those rays of gray light,” Linley said with a frown.

  “It’s fine. While paralyzing it, we can attack the eye,” Fain said. “Perhaps we’ll be able to kill this Beholder King.”

  “No. I strongly recommend that we not try to kill the Beholder King. It’s better if we enter the ninth floor instead,” the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-L
ion argued against it.

  “Why?” Desri didn’t understand, so he asked.

  The other Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said, “Based on what we know, Beholders are extremely proficient at attacking. Aside from the spiritual attack this one just used against Linley and Olivier, they possess other attacks as well, such as ‘mind control’ as well as other, physical attacks.”

  Everyone’s hearts shook.

  “Cleo and the other two will paralyze the Beholder King, and I will attack it,” the Blackscale Scorpion, which had been silent up until now, suddenly spoke up. “All of you rush into the ninth floor.”

  Everyone stared in astonishment at the Blackscale Scorpion.

  “Don’t worry. I have a degree of confidence.” The Blackscale Scorpion was actually very confident.

  “Haha… do you think I am only capable of freezing your soul?” From the distance, loud laughter could be heard. The wild whirlpool had already come to a halt, and now an icy giant that was only ten meters tall had appeared, a single golden eye located within the giant’s body.

  The ice was translucent. One could clearly see that enormous golden eye within the body of the ice giant.

  “Let’s head out,” the leader of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions said.

  Immediately, those ten experts flew back at high speed. At this moment, the Beholder King’s interest was all focused on Olivier. In all his years, the Beholder King had never encountered a soul as interesting as Olivier’s. As someone extremely knowledgeable in souls, he naturally wanted to take Olivier alive, dominate Olivier’s soul, and then carefully examine him.

  “Swoosh.” The ice giant charged towards Olivier in a flash.

  Olivier’s eyes were still closed. He flew back at high speed, while at the same time, chopping out with the black icy sword in his hand.

  “Clang!” The ice giant directly blocked with his left arm.

  At the same time, his right fist smashed viciously towards Olivier. Unable to retract his sword in time, Olivier was smashed flying backwards. “Bang!” He struck a distant iceberg, which immediately cracked. Olivier rolled away, then stood up.

  “What a tough arm. It is dozens of times tougher than it was earlier.” Olivier felt shock in his heart.

  This ice giant, after its body had been smashed apart and then reformed, was tremendously more defensive now, despite having shrunk from its earlier size of a mountain to now just ten meters. Olivier’s full force blow only managed to cut halfway through the arm of the ice giant.

  Just as the Beholder King was about to continue charging towards Olivier, he suddenly saw a black shadow scurry towards the exit. He couldn’t help but feel a sudden burst of anger.

  “Swish.” A ray of gray light directly shot out from the golden eye in the body of the ice giant.

  The black blur seemed to have already predicted what was going to happen, and it immediately dodged, then smashed into the ice-covered exit. The tough ice was shattered by the force of the collision. “Boss, everyone, quick!” A sound rang out from within the exit.

  “Aaaaaaaaargh!” The Beholder King was enraged. He didn’t expect that those intruders who had fled would actually dare to return. He now noticed that the group of experts including Desri, Fain, Linley, and the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions were flying at high speed towards the exit.

  “Die!”

  The Beholder King exploded with fury, and its single golden eye suddenly emanated a golden ray of light the thickness of an arm. This dazzling ray of golden light split the air in an instant, shooting directly towards the human in front, Desri. But the Blackscale Scorpion next to Desri suddenly pointed its scorpion tail directly at the single golden eye of the Beholder King.

  “Pew!”

  A thin, finger-thick ray of black light shot out at high speed from the scorpion tail, travelling even faster than the ray of golden light. In an instant, it arrived at the body of the ice giant. The furious Beholder King actually didn’t dodge. No. It wasn’t that he didn’t dodge. It was…

  The Beholder King’s body was now already covered by a layer of black light. At present, just like Queen Mother Lachapalle, he was completely paralyzed and couldn’t move at all.

  The ultimate attack of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions – Imprisonment!

  “Pew!” The ray of light shot out by the scorpion tail of the Blackscale Scorpion easily penetrated the ice, striking directly into the enormous golden eye in the center of the giant.

  “Aaaaaaaah!” The Beholder King let out an agonized scream, and that layer of black light covering its body actually began to tremble.

  “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!”

  Linley, Desri, Fain, and the other experts seized this opportunity to rocket straight into the exit. Even Olivier had seized the opportunity to charge towards the exit at high speed.

  27

  A Hospitable Host

  This scorpion tail attack by Blackscale Scorpion was simply too insidious. Even someone as tough as the Beholder King felt its soul tremble, causing it to howl in agony. “Aaaaaaah!” He wildly attacked his surroundings, and the icebergs nearby were smashed and sent flying everywhere.

  At the same time, a hint of blood flowed down from its single golden eye.

  “We have a chance.” The Blackscale Scorpion was overjoyed.

  “Quick, let’s go,” the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions, which knew exactly what a Beholder King was, roared furiously.

  “I will kill you all!” The Beholder King howled with rage, and his bloody golden eye suddenly blasted out with more than ten rays of red light.

  While fleeing towards the exit, one of the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions directly grabbed the Blackscale Scorpion and dragged him towards the exit. The four magical beasts were the last to enter the exit. After they charged into the ninth floor, they could hear a thundering sound on the eighth floor.

  “We finally made it into the ninth floor.”

  Linley, Desri, Fain, and the others had already arrived in the ninth floor before them, and were waiting for the three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions and the Blackscale Scorpion to enter. The eleven experts reunited, everyone looked at each other, a hint of a smile on their faces.

  “Although we didn’t acquire any divine artifacts, all of us made it safely through to the ninth floor. This is already a very lucky thing.” Fain chuckled.

  “Whew. That was really quite frightening.” For once, Rosarie revealed her true thoughts. “Fortunately, the Beholder King’s attention was focused on Olivier, giving us a chance to charge in.”

  “Right. The Beholder King hadn’t actually begun to use his real power at all. ‘Soul Freezer’ is only one of his most basic attacks. Someone capable of becoming a ‘king’ amongst Beholders has immeasurably great power. We were all very lucky.” A Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion sighed as well.

  Although the final attack by the Blackscale Scorpion was powerful, it was at most capable of injuring the Beholder King, not killing him.

  “We are lucky. Lucky to have had Olivier.” Desri grinned as he looked at Olivier.

  Everyone couldn’t help but look at Olivier as well.

  Olivier still maintained his silence. Amongst these experts, Olivier really did not speak very often.

  “Olivier, how is it that you were fine after having suffered the ‘Soul Freezer’ attack?” a Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion asked curiously.

  Olivier hesitated a moment, then said just a few words. “I do not know either.”

  They didn’t ask him any further. Regardless of whether he was telling the truth or not, it wouldn’t be polite to press him.

  “Everyone, be careful. This ninth floor’s danger level is most likely no lower than that of the eighth floor’s,” Desri spoke. “We can’t always hope to be as lucky as we were just now.”

  Linley’s group nodded.

  Nobody minded the fact that they had been unable to gain the divine artifact of the eighth floor.

  Actually, compared to divine artifacts, the true goal of the people here was div
ine sparks. But divine sparks would only appear on the eleventh floor. As for the twelfth floor, Linley didn’t even dare to think about it. According to what Beirut had said, only upon reaching the Deity level did one have the ability to protect one’s self in the twelfth floor.

  Everyone’s true goal was to make it to the eleventh floor soon, without suffering any more casualties.

  “This ninth floor seems to be quite mysterious.” Linley stared at the environment of the ninth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods.

  Linley and the others saw a turbid blue ocean beneath them, with roiling blue waves stretching off into the endless horizons. Here, in the ninth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, aside from the endless sea, there was only a secluded little green island not too far away.

  “Everyone, be careful. After we pass through this floor, we’ll be able to rest and prepare to enter the eleventh floor. This floor is the most difficult barrier to reaching the eleventh floor,” Tulily said solemnly.

  Everyone stared carefully at the surrounding area.

  Although this was only the ninth floor, and the tenth floor would come after this, Linley’s group knew that every five floors made up a ‘level’ of difficulty, and the tenth floor would be much less dangerous than the sixth through ninth floors.

  Nobody considered the tenth floor to be hard to pass through. They only treated it as a place to rest and prepare.

  It was much like how the fifth floor hadn’t been a hard place to pass through.

  “There’s nothing but the endless oceans around us.” Rosarie frowned.

  “There’s no tall constructions. I expect there’s only one possible location for the exit to the tenth floor. That place.” Rosarie pointed at the distant island.

  “The tunnel to the tenth floor should be on that island.” Linley nodded to himself.

  After all, aside from the island, there was nothing here besides the sea. If the exit was placed in the endless depths of the ocean, how long would it take them to even just search for it? Linley believed that the almighty Sovereign who designed this Necropolis of the Gods wouldn’t do such a thing.