Linley had been feeling extremely excited, but upon seeing the Coiling Dragon ring, he calmed down. He seemed to see that kindly, white-haired Grandpa Doehring within it. In his time, Grandpa Doehring had dreamed of becoming a Deity, but after being forced to enter the Coiling Dragon ring, he had lost that opportunity. He had thus cultivated and trained Linley, hoping that Linley would be able to reach the highest peaks.
“Grandpa Doehring, today, I have finally reached the Deity level.” Linley sighed softly in his heart.
“If, Grandpa Doehring, you were still alive, how wonderful that would be.” Linley sighed in his heart.
After taking a deep breath, Linley filled the Coiling Dragon ring with his wind-style divine power, but what Linley discovered was… ”Useless? Filling the Coiling Dragon ring with divine power is useless?” Linley was somewhat confused. Whenever a divine artifact was filled with divine power, it should have some response at least.
But the Coiling Dragon ring had no response at all.
“Could it be that this is a rather special divine artifact?” Linley retracted his divine power, then filled the Coiling Dragon with his spiritual energy.
When becoming a Deity, the natural Laws had surrounded Linley’s soul. Thus, despite splitting in half, after having interacted with the natural Laws, Linley’s soul had already transformed on a basic level.
All people who became Deities on their own would have this sort of transformation.
Linley’s spiritual transformation had also caused his great reservoir of spiritual energy, based on his soul, to change with it as well. After this pure spiritual energy entered the Coiling Dragon ring, a faint, azure light flashed through the Coiling Dragon ring while at the same time, Linley could sense that within the Coiling Dragon ring, there was an extremely strange energy.
“What’s this?”
Linley was extraordinarily surprised.
Suddenly, an extremely powerful aura touched Linley’s spiritual energy. This aura was so powerful that Linley began shaking from the depths of his heart. It was simply too powerful. The aura contained within the Coiling Dragon ring was far more powerful than the aura that Bloodviolet had contained.
“Lucky young fellow,” a deep, rumbling voice echoed in Linley’s mind. “This was a ring that I liked very much when I was alive. It is a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Only, it is damaged now. It wasn’t able to successfully protect me, and so, naturally, it was damaged. To repair it, the only thing you can do is to slowly heal it through your spiritual energy… as for how long it will take, even I cannot predict it. Actually, I very much want to know who will be the one to inherit this ring of mine. Unfortunately, I won’t have the chance. I’ll never have the chance…”
That deep, rumbling voice slowly faded away.
Linley was completely stunned.
A soul-protecting Sovereign artifact? A damaged one?
“A Sovereign artifact?” Linley’s body was shaking slightly. He had only heard of ‘divine artifacts’. No one had ever told him that there was such a thing as a Sovereign artifact.
Above the Saint level, there were Demigods, Gods, Highgods, and Sovereigns.
So weapons were divided into ‘divine artifacts’ and ‘Sovereign artifacts’.
“A soul-protecting Sovereign artifact?” Linley discovered that the Coiling Dragon ring contained a special energy within it. “Since it is a soul-protecting artifact, then…” Linley immediately controlled this unique energy, having it enter his soul. Instantly…
A huge, translucent membrane of energy, shaped like countless scales, suddenly formed around his sea of consciousness, including his divine spark and his original body. This translucent membrane contained within it an aura of spiritual energy. The scaly membrane should have been formed from spiritual energy-type power.
Only…
In the center of this translucent membrane, there was a hole, as though it had been cut apart.
“Damaged. It truly is damaged.” Linley sighed to himself.
The most important thing to a Deity was his soul!
A soul-protecting divine artifact was naturally precious. As for a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, that was something one couldn’t even hope to gain. Unfortunately, this one was damaged.
For example, that Soulsilk attack encapsulated one’s entire soul. Once a large amount of Soulsilk gathered there, it would definitely be able to flood through into his consciousness through that gap. Although the other areas of this translucent membrane were durable, with such a gap in it, the value of it would drop dramatically.
“Use spiritual energy to repair it?”
Linley laughed bitterly.
He could guess that the deep, rumbling voice was most likely that of a Sovereign who had then passed away. As for this soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, it was broken through and damaged. That voice was perhaps nothing more than some information that the deceased Sovereign had left behind.
But of course, perhaps it wasn’t a Sovereign.
It wasn’t necessarily only a Sovereign who could be in possession of a Sovereign artifact.
“Even that expert had no idea how long it would take to repair it. It definitely must take a very long time.” Linley tested fusing his spiritual energy into that scale-like membrane. Instantly, a large amount of his spiritual energy entered the membrane, passing through even the gap.
At the same time, a large amount of spiritual energy began to try and ‘patch’ the gap.
This ‘patch’ formed from Linley’s spiritual energy was able to stop up the gap.
“The defensive strength of the ‘patch’ my spiritual energy made is definitely very low.” However, Linley discovered that as he constantly used his spiritual energy to nourish this translucent membrane, the strength of the ‘patch’ he had over the gap was slowly rising as well, gaining in strength.
Only, the speed of the increase was simply too slow.
“To reach the same level of defensive power as the rest of that scaly membrane will most likely take thousands of years at best.” Linley shook his head, sighing. “Still, right now, all I need to do is focus my spiritual energy on defending that little gap, and I can ignore the rest. This does indeed allow my soul defense to rise dramatically.”
In terms of power, this damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact was actually inferior to an ordinary soul-protecting divine artifact.
“Huh?” As Linley’s spiritual energy once more entered the Coiling Dragon ring, he discovered…
After the translucent membrane’s energy faded away, there were still two other surges of energy auras contained within the Coiling Dragon ring.
One of the energy auras was coming from a gold-colored drop of blood, while the other surge of energy was coming from three azure water drops.
“Gold liquid?” For some reason, when Linley sensed that gold-colored liquid, Linley felt his original body began to tremble. Not hesitating at all, Linley immediately once more transformed into his original body, storing his divine clone back into his soul-realm.
Indeed, the sensation now was much clearer.
The blood within his body was beginning to boil. The strange thing was… at this moment, that golden drop of blood flew out from within the Coiling Dragon ring, then fused directly with Linley’s original body.
“This…?” Linley was shocked.
“Linley?” The nearby Delia had been watching Linley this entire time. When she saw the golden drop of blood fly into Linley’s body, she was deeply surprised. But then… Delia grew frantic, because Linley began to let out low roars of agony.
“Delia… I… I’m fine!” Linley ground out.
Seeing the fierce look on Linley’s face, and how his muscles were spasming, Delia refused to believe that Linley was fine.
Compared to last time, though, when his soul had been cut in half, this time Linley at least maintained consciousness.
“Aaaaaah!” Linley couldn’t help but raise his head and let out an angry roar.
“Bang!” The sky-blue robe covering Linley’s body shattered into countless tiny pieces, and instantly, an enormous amount of dark, gleaming draconic scales erupted forth from Linley’s body, and even his draconic tail emerged.
Linley was currently undergoing an uncontrollable Dragonblood Warrior transformation.
“Linley.” Delia looked at Linley, her eyes filled with worry.
Linley’s deep azure draconic scales were slowly transforming. The deep azure scales were changing, first becoming azure, just like the Pure Dragonblood Warriors. And then, Linley’s draconic scales began to emit a faint, golden aura.
The azure-gold draconic scales covered Linley’s entire body.
The horns on Linley’s forehead and along his spine were beginning to transform as well…
“Aaaaah!” Linley was filled with pain, releasing deep, growling sounds. The pain from this transformation was far greater than when Linley had originally drank the blood of the Armored Razorback Wyrm and transformed. Only, Linley’s endurance was now far greater than before, and so he didn’t pass out like he did when he was young.
Although he was in great pain, Linley’s heart was filled with wild joy.
“What on earth was that golden drop of blood? My body… has become… so powerful!” His Dragonblood Warrior form was still slowly transforming, but Linley could already sense that his body contained boundless power. Every single scale flashed with that azure-gold light, and that horn on his forehead was unspeakably sharp.
This was far more powerful than even his divine body!
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The feeling that his current Dragonblood Warrior transformation gave Linley was… power! Boundless strength!
“Whoooosh!” The swaying of his draconic tail created a howling sound in the air, and the edges of those azure-gold draconic scales that were reflecting that cold, golden light seemed to be as sharp as knives. If one of these draconic scales were removed from his body, they would probably be able to easily chop apart very precious ores.
The gold drop of blood that had entered Linley’s body had transformed every part of him.
He did his best to endure the pain, softly emitting agonized growls.
A long time later…
The transformation was finally over.
“Whew.” Linley let out a long breath, while at the same time, he took a look at his new, transformed appearance. Azure was the primary color, covered by a layer of golden light. The transformed Linley naturally emitted an ancient aura, as though he were an ancient, god-like beast.
“Linley.” The nearby Delia had been nervous the entire time. Now, seeing that Linley was no longer shaking in agony, she felt slightly more at ease.
“Delia.” Looking at Delia, Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face. At the same time, Linley immediately dissolved the Dragonblood Warrior transformation. Only, this Dragonblood Warrior transformation had been simply too explosive. All of the clothes on his body had been completely shattered. He didn’t have a single scrap of clothing on him.
Fortunately, at present, only himself and Delia were here.
“Get dressed, quickly,” Delia laughed while berating him.
Linley immediately withdrew some underwear and outer garments from his interspatial ring. As a Dragonblood Warrior, he always had many sets of clothes prepared in his interspatial ring. Dressing himself, Linley then sat down alongside Delia. Leaning against each other, they began to chat.
“Linley, what does it feel like to have reached the Deity level?” Delia was very curious. After all, she hadn’t truly fused with the divine spark yet.
“Becoming a Deity?”
Linley was slightly startled. Although he had become a Deity, Linley hadn’t felt that he himself had changed much at all. Now that Delia asked him, however, Linley took a good look at his body and sensed it and his surroundings had indeed changed slightly.
“It’s clearer with my divine clone.” Linley swapped to his other body.
Indeed, with his divine clone present, Linley could clearly sense the control he could now wield over the surrounding area. This was a certain type of authority that the Demigod divine spark conveyed upon Linley. Linley had a feeling… that divine sparks were actually a sort of ‘certificate’ representing certain powers as well as a certain understanding of the Laws.
The more powerful the divine spark, the more authority would be granted.
“You swapped bodies yet again?” Delia laughed. “If, in battle, one of your bodies were to be destroyed, you could use the other body to continue doing battle, right?”
“Yes, I can do that. Only, the divine clone is more effective when utilizing the Profound Truths of Velocity.” Linley sighed.
“Huh?” Linley now sensed another change. Countless thin, silken streams of gold had permeated directly into his soul-world. Although each of them were miniscule, when combined, they still added up to an astonishing amount.
“What are these?” Linley was puzzled.
Linley had never seen this sort of strange energy before. But when he interacted with those countless golden threads, within Linley’s mind, he could sense one pious person after another. Every single golden thread represented a person.
“The energy of faith!” Linley instantly understood.
Linley immediately paid close attention to those golden threads. Those gold threads directly entered Linley’s soul-world. Only, as this soul-world was vast and boundless, the large number of gold threads could only be considered a single drop of water within that great sea. Linley couldn’t sense any changes to himself caused by those golden threads entering his consciousness.
Aside from, that is, being able to sense those pious worshippers.
“I hear that faith energy is extremely beneficial for training, but why is it that I can’t sense it?” Linley was somewhat puzzled.
But soon afterwards, Linley laughed. “I just reached the Deity level and just started collecting faith energy. However, faith energy is nonstop and constant. For example, the War God has accumulated thousands of years of faith energy. As for the likes of Sovereigns, they have followers in all the countless planes. Who knows how much faith energy they have accumulated? Most likely, only after faith energy accumulates to a certain amount will one sense its effect.”
Although he didn’t understand what faith energy was used for, Linley was very certain that faith energy definitely was beneficial to himself.
After all, even the likes of Sovereigns needed faith energy.
“Linley, what are you daydreaming about?” Delia interrupted Linley’s thoughts.
Linley returned to his senses. After Linley carefully explained what he had just sensed, Delia was shocked. “Faith energy? So when your spiritual energy senses faith energy, it appears as golden threads. Faith is an insubstantial, formless thing. Why is it that human faith can create this sort of unique energy?”
“I’m not sure either.” Linley laughed. “Delia, in two days, I’m planning to head out.”
“Right. You’ve already reached the Deity level. There’s no need for you to keep working so hard.” Delia nodded.
“No. The reason I am going out is because I am preparing to start a kill-or-be-killed battle with a Deity.” Linley looked at Delia solemnly. Although he previously hadn’t told Delia, at this time, Linley no longer wished to hide it from her. After all, this was simply too important.
Linley himself wasn’t fully confident in his ability to defeat another Deity.
After all, the opponent was a Deity as well.
“What?!” Delia was instantly so shocked that her eyes turned round. “Linley, you are going to battle against a Deity? Who? The War God? The High Priest?” Delia instantly grew worried and frightened. Linley had just become a Deity.
It was too dangerous.
“No, not them.”
Linley, facing the look in Delia’s eyes, felt a hint of guilt in his heart. After all, in this battle against the Deity, it would be wo
nderful if he won, but if he lost… wouldn’t it have been terribly unfair to Delia?
“Then who is it? Why do you have to engage in a battle to the death?” Delia said hurriedly. “Could it be that this is an unavoidable battle?”
Linley let out a long sigh. “Fine, then. I’ll tell you the truth, Delia.” Linley immediately described Yale’s situation in full to her. He started from Yale’s out-of-character desire to have sole rights to buy the battle captives of the empire, all the way to the point where Yale came to use poison to try and kill Linley, as well as Zassler’s hypothesis.
If he didn’t kill that Deity, Yale would forever remain a puppet!
In addition, at this period in time, that Deity was in a badly wounded state, and was also busy. In a few more years, that Deity would have recovered his strength, and he wouldn’t be able to find another good opportunity.
Most importantly…
He could afford to waste time, but Yale couldn’t.
Who knew when that Deity would once more send Yale out to be sacrificed? If Yale truly were to die, Linley would probably blame himself for the rest of his life.
“Linley.” After hearing everything, Delia wanted to say something, but she couldn’t get it out.
She didn’t want Linley to risk himself, but she understood Linley’s personality very well. Linley could, for her sake, throw away everything, including his own life. But for the sake of Wharton, Yale, Reynolds, and the others, Linley could do the same.
“Delia, don’t worry. I still have some reason to be confident,” Linley said.
“What reason?” Delia hurriedly asked.
She hoped that Linley could explain it to her and give her an answer that would put her at her ease.
“A person’s battle strength is based on their personal ability as well as their weapons. Delia, this Bloodviolet sword of mine should be an extremely powerful type of divine artifact,” Linley explained. “In addition to that, Delia, you need to remember that I have two bodies; my original body, and the clone.”
Linley rubbed Delia on her shoulders and said seriously, “Delia, I can guarantee to you that if one of my bodies is destroyed, I will immediately choose to retreat.”
Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 51
