His divine sense spread out like a ripple in water, quickly reaching the mountain where Desri resided.
“Right here.” Linley could clearly sense the powerful natural Laws rippling forth from this location. Linley no longer dared to continue spreading his divine sense. All he did was wait. After all, the process of being given a divine spark and forming a divine body was a very short one. Indeed…
Just a short while later, the ripples of those natural Laws disappeared.
Linley once again spread out his divine sense, instantly covering that person who had just become a Deity.
“It is Desri.” Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face.
At the moment, Desri was currently within an underground training room in his mountain residence. There were quite a number of people gathered there, including Pennslyn, Higginson, Reynolds, and others. These people were all excitedly watching as Desri became a Deity. Desri had also chosen the second method; dividing his soul in two!
“Desri, congratulations,” Linley’s voice transmitted directly into Desri’s mind.
“Haha, Linley, I was half a year slower than you.” Desri spoke modestly, but in his heart, he was overjoyed. He had stopped at the Prime Saint level for too long a period of time. Today, he had finally broken through, and it was through relying on his own ability.
The two Deities were separated by thousands of kilometers, but they spoke to each other spiritually.
“Desri, why did you choose to separate your soul?” Linley asked, puzzled. “Don’t you only train in the Laws of Light?”
“Linley, although this soul splitting process is extremely harmful to the soul, with time, the soul will grow and heal. But now, I have two separate bodies. At least, when I’m fighting, if one of my bodies is destroyed, I’ll still have another body. It basically means I’ll have a second life. And more importantly… although I’m currently only training in the Laws of Light, does that mean in the future, I won’t be able to train in anything else?”
Linley laughed as well.
Actually, the majority of people who became Deities on their own, if they knew the difference between the two choices, would choose this second option.
The damage to the soul caused by the soul splitting was only temporary, after all. But what it represented was an additional life, as well as future possibilities for further training! After all, after one became a Deity, one would have an unlimited lifespan. One could train in the other Elemental Laws.
For example, if Linley had enough time, he could definitely continue to train in the fire-style, or even the Way of Destruction.
“Desri, you just became a Deity. I imagine you have quite a few things to attend to. I won’t bother you anymore. Afterwards, when you have some free time, come for a stroll at my place.” Linley laughed.
“Definitely,” Desri agreed.
Desri, too, sensed that the variables and changes in the Yulan continent had become highly unpredictable. Joining forces with Linley would be beneficial to both of them in their ability to protect themselves. After all, generally speaking, a person who became a Deity on his or her own was more powerful by a good margin than someone who had become a Deity through fusing with a divine spark.
Fusing with a divine spark was like simply reading a book to understand the Laws contained within it, while becoming a Deity independently was like actually writing a book. The author of a book would naturally have a greater understanding of it than the readers. He would fully understand every part of the book, and would be able to apply the principles within more easily as well.
Linley withdrew his divine sense.
Linley stood there in mid-air, directly summoning his magical beast. “Haeru, come over, quickly.” At this moment, Haeru was still in the Forest of Darkness, but upon hearing Linley’s order, he immediately flew over in haste. Only, Haeru was still a few thousand kilometers away from Dragonblood Castle.
Linley waited in the rear flower garden for Haeru’s arrival.
“Swoosh.” Haeru landed on the ground.
“Master.” Haeru looked at Linley in confusion. Linley had never so urgently summoned him before. After all, his power in Dragonblood Castle was below average. There were only a few who were weaker than him.
“Haeru, want to become a Deity?” Linley revealed a hint of a smile on his face.
Haeru’s eyes suddenly turned round, and all the fur on his body stood up. He stared at Linley in astonishment. “Ma… master? Did you just say?” Haeru, having lived in Dragonblood Castle, knew that Barker and Zassler had both acquired divine sparks.
Could it be…
That the same good fortune was about to descend upon him, Haeru?
Haeru felt somewhat numb. He himself felt that within Dragonblood Castle, he was an unimportant, unnoticeable figure.
“Right. Divine spark.” Linley’s smile was very bright.
With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved a black divine spark, radiating a faint green light. Haeru stared at the divine spark, forgetting to breathe. All of his attention had been completely captured by that divine spark. The world of magical beasts was one where the strong were venerated.
The friends that Haeru had made were mostly Saint-level magical beasts as well.
The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, the Mountain Range of the Setting Sun, the Forest of Darkness… perhaps Haeru hadn’t met a hundred Saint-level magical beasts yet, but he had definitely met more than fifty. These Saint-level magical beasts worshipped Lord Beirut and Lord Dylin, because Lord Beirut and Lord Dylin were both magical beasts who had trained to the point of being able to take human form. Magical beasts who had become Deities!
All of these Saint-level magical beasts longed for the day when they, too, would become Deities!
Deity-level magical beasts, standing atop all the other magical beasts of the world!
“I, I, Haeru, am going to become a Deity?” Haeru felt his head grow numb.
Haeru had always been quite satisfied. After all, Blackcloud Panthers were generally of the ninth rank. He was already quite satisfied at having become a Saint, and was very grateful towards Linley for having given him a Saint-level magicite core and allowing him to break through to the Saint level. Thus, Haeru did whatever Linley asked him to do without a word of complaint.
“What, you don’t want to?” Linley snickered.
“I want to!” Haeru responded very quickly this time.
Laughing, Linley tossed over the divine spark. Glimmering under the reflected rays of the sun, the divine spark flew towards him.
Haeru stared at the divine spark, his mind filled with thoughts. How could he have imagined that a magical beast of the ninth rank like himself would not only become a Saint, but also… it seemed he was about to become a Deity-level magical beast whom other Saint-level magical beasts worshipped!
“I, Haeru, am also about to become… Lord Haeru?” Haeru was currently imagining the look of awe and veneration in the eyes of countless magical beasts as they referred to him as ‘Lord Haeru’. “Hrm, how about… in the future, I’ll choose the Mountain Range of Setting Sun. I’ll become the King of the Mountain Range of Setting Sun. I, Haeru. King of the Mountain Range of the Setting Sun.”
Haeru had never been so happy before.
70
The Deity-Level Expert, Muba
The Baruch Empire’s southwest area. Within the valley amongst a chain of mountains.
This was an important base for the Dawson Conglomerate. In the past, there had been many people stationed here, but ever since Linley had killed the Grand Warlock, Yale naturally had stopped the practice of shipping slaves to this location, and thus the number of people stationed here was lowered as well. These days, there were only a few thousand people present, mostly responsible for trading activities.
Night had descended.
The Dawson Conglomerate employees who worked here now had much easier lives. At night, many men would get together to drink deep into the night, with them
only wobbling home in small groups of two and three.
“During the past year, life has gotten so much better,” a muscular young man, reeking of wine, said loudly. “A few years ago, in this valley of Mt. Swallow, each day was like hell. Damn…”
“Right. Back then, I didn’t even dare to go out at night. Too many people died. I don’t even know how many corpses I had to dispose of.” A middle-aged man with curly golden hair, thinking back to the affairs of the past, couldn’t help but sigh with amazement.
Those days, over ten thousand corpses had to be shipped away on a daily basis.
The employees who lived and worked at this branch of the Dawson Conglomerate within the valley always felt as though they were at the psychological breaking point.
The three men, walking shoulder to shoulder, suddenly realized to their astonishment that they could no longer move. The space around them seemed to have solidified, causing them to be unable to move at all. They were so frightened that they wanted to open their mouths, but they could not. The three of them all stared with round eyes, terrified.
From within the darkness a human figure wrapped in a black robe appeared before them.
Seeing this mysterious black-robed man, all three felt their hearts shake. They somewhat understood… that the reason they couldn’t move and couldn’t even open their mouths was the result of the actions of this mysterious man in black.
“How long ago did this canyon cease trading in slaves?” the black-robed man’s low, gravelly voice rang out. “Speak, but don’t shout too loudly. Nobody will be able to hear you. In addition, if someone shouts loudly and irritates me, I’ll kill him.”
He swept the three men with his dark, cold gaze. The three men’s forehead and back were utterly drenched with sweat. To their astonishment, they found that their mouths could move again.
“Speak,” The mysterious black-robed man said.
“Half a year ago.” That golden-haired, middle-aged man was somewhat more mentally disciplined. The other two were scared speechless.
“Half a year ago. Half a year ago, did something happen? Such as a battle?” the black-robed man asked.
“Yes, there was a major battle.” The muscular youth came to his senses as well. He hurriedly said, “Half a year ago, late at night, two Saints battled, causing the ground of our entire valley to shake, and even many buildings were damaged.”
“The ground shook?”
The mysterious black-robed man seemed to have thought of something. “Continue. Describe what happened that night in detail to me.”
The youngster with inch long short hair added, “We were all present. At first, we didn’t notice the battle, only that the ground was shaking, followed by buildings exploding. We were so frightened that we ran outside, at which point we discovered that in the air above the valley, two experts were battling. One was a Dragonblood Warrior, while the other was a black-robed person. Oh, right. He wielded a black sickle. That sickle was so enormous, at least ten meters long.”
“Right. It was very long, and then we saw it transform into nine of those black sickles,” the muscular youngster added.
They didn’t know that those sickles were created from the Grand Warlock’s spiritual energy, because at that time, it was dark. Although there were torches on the ground, they were only just barely able to make out the scene. They did, however, clearly see the enormous black sickle formed from spiritual energy.
“Sickle?” The mysterious black-robed man was silent for a while.
“And the results?” the mysterious black man continued.
“The battle happened too fast. We only saw that the black-robed man was turned into a pile of mincemeat, and then the Dragonblood Warrior fell to the ground. It was the Dragonblood Warrior who won. Our Lord Chairman then ordered us to go back to our homes, and then the Lord Chairman stayed with the Dragonblood Warrior for a very long time,” the muscular youth stuttered.
The mysterious black-robed man immediately asked, “That Dragonblood Warrior, was his name Linley?”
“Right. It should have been Lord Linley. Lord Linley is on very good terms with our Lord Chairman,” The golden-haired, middle-aged man said.
“Very good.” The mysterious black-robed man nodded in satisfaction. “I am very satisfied with your answers.”
The three men let out secret sighs of relief.
“Crackle…” A very soft sound. The bodies of the three men instantly crumbled into three piles of dust.
“He really did die.” The mysterious black-robed man was extremely angry. “He actually died, and before he finished refining the Gold Soul-Pearl he promised me.” The black-robed man was Beaumont, whom the Grand Warlock had promised to help fuse a Gold Soul-Pearl for.
“Linley?”
Beaumont’s eyes were cold. “I didn’t expect that in such a short time period, he was able to become a Deity, and that he even managed to survive in the face of the Grand Warlock’s ultimate attack.”
Beaumont knew very well that the Grand Warlock’s ultimate attack was a self-damaging attack that would devastate the opponent. For an expert who had just reached the Deity level to be able to withstand it caused Beaumont to feel shocked.
“Indeed, he lives up to his reputation as being an ultimate genius of the Yulan continent.” Beaumont’s heart was actually filled with hatred. The Gold Soul-Pearl was very important to him. The benefits of absorbing one were simply too great. Not only would one’s soul be strengthened, one’s future rate of improvement in training would also be sped up dramatically.
“Hrmph. Linley,” Beaumont muttered Linley’s name, then with a cold laugh, disappeared into a black ray of light, disappearing into the horizon.
Yulan calendar, year 10040. December 29th. The previous night, there had been a great blizzard. By daybreak, the snowfall stopped, and the entire Dragonblood Castle was now transformed into a world of snow. Under the light of the sun, the accumulated snow was as brilliant as a gemstone. Even Delia temporarily paused her training.
After all, the Yulan Festival was about to arrive. Everyone would get together over the next few days.
Outside Dragonblood Castle.
A middle-aged man with a head of neat, short silver hair, wearing a thick white robe, walked through the snow to stand in front of Dragonblood Castle. This middle-aged man’s face had a hint of a smile on it, but his eyes looked like black jade.
“Stop, citizen,” the Dragonblood Castle’s guards instantly called out.
The middle-aged man glanced at the guards with a smile. “Go make a report that I have come to meet with the master of Dragonblood Castle, Linley.”
The faces of the two guards outside Dragonblood Castle changed. In the Baruch Empire, the name ‘Linley’ was inviolable, like the name of a god. Even if someone were to refer to him by name, they would still respectfully refer to him as ‘Lord Linley’. There were very few people who dared to refer to Linley by his name directly.
The two guards were just about to shout in rebuke, but suddenly…
“Let him in,” Linley’s voice rang out in the minds of these two guards.
The two guards were both shocked. Linley had actually mentally spoken to them for the sake of this person.
“Please, come in.” Although puzzled, the two guards still allowed this person to enter.
Within the rear flower garden, Linley and Delia were currently seated together, enjoy the snowy scene and the sunlight.
“Delia, soon, an important guest is going to be coming.” Linley smiled as he looked at Delia. Delia was somewhat surprised. “An important guest? Who? How do you know?”
“That guest directly used his divine sense to contact me.” Linley shook his head with a laugh.
“Are you saying he is a Deity?” Hearing the words ‘divine sense’, Delia instantly understood. She seemed very shocked. “Linley, which Deity? The War God and the others are still in the Necropolis of the Gods, right? They won’t be back for three more years.”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
At present, Linley was in a fine mood. “I didn’t expect that he would so politely ask the guards outside to send a message. How amusing.”
Generally speaking, the likes of Desri and Tulily would fly directly into Dragonblood Castle. If a Deity wanted to meet with Linley, they could simply fly directly in. There was no need to insist on the gate guards to make a report.
Soon afterwards, the Deity walked into the rear flower garden.
“Mr. Linley, greetings,” the silver-haired middle-aged man said with a smile. “My name is Muba.”
“Mr. Muba, I’ve heard of your name long ago,” Linley spoke. The god of that mysterious religion was named ‘Muba’. Earlier, when he had just arrived at the gate to Dragonblood Castle, Muba had directly greeted Linley with his divine sense.
Although Linley was surprised, he still warmly welcomed the man.
After all, this person had come in an extremely polite manner.
Hearing Linley say this, Muba understood that his founding of a religion was probably already known to Linley. He began to laugh as well. “I truly am sorry. Without getting your permission, Mr. Linley, I started to proselytize in your empire.”
Towards this, Linley didn’t openly express if he was upset or not.
“Mr. Muba, please sit.” Linley pointed at a nearby stone bench.
Laughing merrily, Muba sat down. Muba’s face was perpetually sunny and smiling. Even his gaze made a person think of the nourishing spring wind. This sort of person really was the sort that few would think of as an enemy.
“Might I ask what the purpose of this visit is, Mr. Muba?” Linley was the first to speak.
Muba laughed, “Actually, the first reason I came is to apologize. Before this, I knew that you, Mr. Linley, were a Saint. As I saw it, you shouldn’t care too much about faith energy. At that time, when I erected my religion, it actually didn’t affect you very much, Mr. Linley. But now that you have become a Deity, Mr. Linley, I feel rather embarrassed.”
Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 56
