Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  The setting sun shone down upon the fleeing refugees on the desolate road, stretching out their shadows. Tattered clothes, dirty and thin faces, eyes filled with both fear as well as hope for the future. They worked hard to move towards the north.

  In mid-air.

  Linley and Desri, shoulder to shoulder, came to a halt. By now, Linley and Desri had entered the borders of the Rohault Empire.

  “Let’s go down and take a look. Let’s ask those refugees. Perhaps we can get a truer understanding of the situation,” Desri said. Ever since they had crossed over the border into the Rohault Empire, Linley and Desri’s faces had lost their smiles. Their faces were very solemn.

  The Rohault Empire was in a state of utter chaos.

  A wind arose, then dispersed. Linley and Desri appeared in the midst of some wild grass by the side of that desolate road, then strode from the grass onto the road. On this road, there were many fleeing refugees. Nobody paid attention to Linley and Desri.

  “How much suffering have they endured?” Desri looked at the dim, terrified looks in the eyes of those refugees, sighing as he spoke.

  Linley had the same feeling in his heart.

  Linley’s gaze suddenly fell on a muscular youngster. That youngster’s gaze was resolved, and on his back he was carrying an ancient, silver-haired old lady. Amongst the hundreds of people present, Linley felt that only this youth seemed to have a bit more spirit, and Linley could also tell at a glance that he was a warrior of the fifth rank.

  Linley immediately walked over, and Desri followed him.

  Seeing Linley and Desri walk over, the youth instantly looked at the two of them warily. “Milords, what do you need?” This muscular youth had some worldly experience, and he could sense that these two people in front of him were not ordinary.

  “My friend, I want to ask you a question. What exactly has happened, to cause you all to flee like this?” Linley’s attitude was very gentle.

  Hearing these words, the muscular youth was actually a bit puzzled. “Many of the citizens of our Rohault Empire have been slaughtered, milords. I imagine every refugee knows this. Why do you ask me?”

  “I, too, know that many citizens have been slaughtered, and that the number is very high. I am just puzzled. For so many people to have been slaughtered, this shouldn’t have been something that happened just a day or two ago. Why is it that you are only fleeing now, after so many people were killed?”

  Linley had been wondering about this the entire time.

  A hundred million people.

  A Saint, even one who killed hundreds of thousands of people each day, would still have to spend several months in slaughter. News of the ‘dead city’ events should have spread very quickly. How could the citizens have waited for over a hundred million to be slaughtered before they began a wide-scale refugee flight?

  He had asked Cena this earlier, but all Cena could say was that they hadn’t had a chance to investigate this yet.

  Hearing these words, the muscular youth couldn’t help but reveal a bitter smile on his face. “Milords, if you asked an ordinary person, they probably really wouldn’t know the answer.” As he spoke, the muscular youth let out a long sigh. Linley and Desri’s eyes couldn’t help but light up.

  Clearly, this muscular youth knew some secrets.

  “Please tell us,” Desri said.

  The muscular youth didn’t know that the two in front of him were Deities. His eyes were filled with a hint of pain and helplessness. “This isn’t a major secret. When I was stationed in the Barrow Legion, many people there knew about this.”

  The Barrow Legion?

  How could reclusive experts like Linley and Desri pay attention to the legions of an empire?

  “Roughly three years ago, our Barrow Legion, a legion of roughly three hundred thousand people, was divided into many smaller units. We were sent to various intersections throughout the southern reaches of the empire. Our order was that we were to be stationed there, and that nobody was to be permitted to pass through. Anyone who dared to pass through would be killed.

  Desri and Linley were secretly shocked.

  They somewhat understood now.

  This was why the massacre had claimed a hundred million lives before everything had exploded into chaos.

  “At first, we didn’t understand either. Although there were a few people who wanted to pass through the intersections we controlled, and they talked about ‘dead cities’, we soldiers viewed carrying out our orders as paramount. When they tried to pass, we immediately killed them.”

  “Initially, when we killed the first two, we didn’t pay attention. But later, one time… one of the people who wanted to flee through our intersection was the good friend of our senior captain. For the sake of our senior captain, we didn’t immediately kill him. But who would’ve thought that this person told us that many cities throughout the southern regions of the empire had been massacred. In the hometown of our senior captain, the only survivor was that friend. The only reason he had survived was because that day, he had went boar-hunting in the mountains, and thus he had escaped that calamity.”

  As the muscular youth spoke, his voice shook.

  “By then, we had been stationed there for two full months,” The muscular youth said bitterly. “At that time, our entire unit was stunned. The senior captain immediately sent someone to investigate in the nearby cities. And the result was… well, you should know.”

  The muscular man shook his head. “We were preparing to inform the other units, but then we found out that we weren’t the first to make this discovery. Another unit had made this discovery before us.”

  Linley and Desri now both understood.

  When Saints moved to exterminate a city, when they spread out their spiritual energy to cover the place, generally speaking nobody would escape their notice. The lucky survivors would generally… be like that person who was boar-hunting at night. Only when they returned to the city would they realize what happened.

  Thus, the number of escapees was extremely low.

  But there were so many possible corridors of escape. A single Legion had many subunits. All of them were stationed in separate intersections, and most likely, each of them would only encounter two or three lucky survivors, but most of those lucky survivors would be slaughtered.

  After all. Obeying orders was paramount.

  “After learning everything, all the brothers in our unit revolted. Our parents, our spouses, or children were all dead. The people in our homeland were all dead. What was the point of us brothers staying in the army?” The muscular youth was somewhat angry as well. “Compared to those brothers of mine, my luck was a bit better. My homeland wasn’t in the south, and so my family members managed to avoid this calamity.”

  The muscular youth turned to look at the old lady he was carrying on his back, his face revealing a hint of concern.

  “Thank you,” Linley said sincerely.

  At this moment, Linley and Desri’s hearts felt so cold. They could all guess how this came about.

  Many cities were massacred, and most likely, there were still more Saints flying in the air, from city to city, killing those lucky survivors. Those who managed to flee to the army camps were extremely rare. But something like this couldn’t be hidden forever.”

  “From what this youth said, this slaughter seemed to have been going on for two months,” Linley made this hypothesis.

  Linley and Desri glanced at each other. Both of them quietly snuck back into the wild grass by the road, and then the two of them shot into the air, flying towards the south at high speed. Linley and Desri both had new targets.

  “What we need to do is to find those Saints located within the Rohault Empire.” Linley was very certain that the Saints within the Rohault Empire would definitely be aware of a major event like this.

  In fact…

  These events should have been carried out by Saints.

  After all, it wasn’t too likely that a Deity would personally
go from city to city slaughtering people. Linley expected that a Deity would control and order some Saints to go carry this out. What they needed to do was to find out some information about this Deity from the Saints.

  Know thy enemy, know thy self. Only then would one win every battle.

  74

  Claws and Fangs

  As they flew in midair, Linley directly began to search using his divine sense.

  “Southeast.” Linley quickly discovered the nearest Saint. “This Saint’s aura is very unique, and his appearance is also strange. He isn’t human.”

  “Let’s find him then.” A cold, fierce look flashed through Desri’s eyes. “Hrmph. There is a better than 90% chance that these Saints from other planes obey the commands of that hidden Deity. If they didn’t engage in slaughter, there is no way they would be able to live so comfortably in the Rohault Empire.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  If this person wasn’t willing to be in cahoots with that Deity, he most likely would have fled long ago. How could he still be staying in the Rohault Empire?

  Linley and Desri flew straight towards that foreign Saint at high speed.

  A skinny, black-skinned man with a turban around his head was currently lying comfortably upon a reclining chair. Next to him were beautiful maids who were respectfully holding platters of fruit out to him. The skinny man had a hint of a smile on his face, but these maids were extremely nervous.

  They all knew that their master’s temper was very bizarre. Although he was laughing very merrily right now, sometimes he would brutally begin to whip and abuse them.

  “This sort of life is wonderful.” The black-skinned man let out a sigh of content.

  He had arrived in the Yulan continent plane four years ago. His life in the Yulan continent was thousands of times more enjoyable than it had been in the Gebados Planar Prison. In that place, he was a low-level person, but here in the Yulan continent, he easily controlled the lives and deaths of others.

  “I came a bit later. Many of those fellows arrived six years ago.” The skinny man actually felt a bit dissatisfied.

  In the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, that fog-shrouded valley was a place where reality was unstable. Generally speaking, Demigods were capable of ripping through space and arriving at the Yulan continent. Even just Saints by themselves were capable of ripping open that tear and arriving in the Yulan continent, if eight of them joined forces.

  “Um, you, come over.” The skinny man’s gaze swept towards a nearby serving maid.

  That serving maid instantly knelt down respectfully, raising the fruit platter up high. Only now did that skinny man happily take a piece of fruit, gnawing it contentedly. In his heart, he said to himself, “Who would’ve thought that I, Bloom, would also be able to enjoy these things. In the Gebados Planar Prison, fruits were things that only Deities could enjoy.”

  Only when there was a contrast would one know how lucky one was.

  Only after one had lost something did one know how to treasure it!

  Bloom, in his original plane, had been a major figure as well, but when he had power, he didn’t care too much about it.

  After having been trapped in Gebados for so long though, he had learned how to enjoy power.

  “Huh?” Bloom’s eyes suddenly realized that two people had appeared within the main hall. Bloom was instantly terrified. He was a Prime Saint, but these two had appeared in his main hall out of nowhere. He stared at them, only to find…

  Bloom suddenly rose to his feet.

  “Milords, who are you?” Bloom’s attitude was extremely respectful.

  Bloom had a strange feeling, as though he had once more returned to Gebados. This was the feeling he got when facing a Deity; that he had to be extremely subservient. The people in front of Bloom were Linley and Desri.

  “What is Master…” The serving maids were shocked. They had personally witnessed how powerful their master was.

  “Let them leave,” Desri spoke.

  Bloom immediately looked at those serving maids, urging them to leave with his gaze. The maids nervously, carefully left. While leaving, all of them secretly glanced at Linley and Desri with curiosity and fear.

  What sort of a person could cause their master to be so terrified?

  “We are from the Yulan plane,” Linley spoke.

  Bloom was stunned.

  But in the next instant, he realized what this man wearing a sky-blue robe meant. Clearly, they already knew where he was from.

  “You should know what our trip here is regarding, yes?” Linley and Desri’s expressions were cold.

  Bloom’s heart shook. Could it be…?

  Bloom forced out a smile. “Milords, I don’t know why…”

  “Hrmph.” Linley let out a cold, angry snort. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what has been happening during this period of time in the Rohault Empire. Speak. Which Deity directed the deaths of those hundred million people from behind the scene?”

  Bloom’s heart lurched. He wanted to speak, but he didn’t dare to. He knew exactly how terrifying that Deity was.

  “Milords, I’m only a Prime Saint. How would I…”

  “WHAP!”

  A palm slapped directly on Bloom’s face, who was knocked flying away like a ripped sandbag, spewing blood everywhere. Even several of his teeth fell out. His body spun in midair several times before collapsing to the ground.

  “So fast.” Bloom was secretly amazed. He didn’t even see the move being made.

  Linley glanced at Bloom coldly, then said calmly, “If you don’t tell us, you will die right now. If you do tell us… that Deity might not necessarily kill you.”

  “Milords, I’ll tell, I’ll tell.” In front of Linley and Desri, Bloom didn’t dare to put on any airs at all. He immediately said, “This affair of killing many humans and collecting their souls was done completely at the direction of Lord Beaumont.”

  “Beaumont?” Linley and Desri exchanged a glance.

  Yet another foreign name.

  Yet another Deity!

  Desri said coldly, “Beaumont. I imagine that this Beaumont wouldn’t personally go kill the humans, right?”

  Bloom hesitated slightly, but upon hearing Linley’s cold snort, he hurriedly said, “Of course Lord Beaumont wouldn’t personally act. He ordered many Saints to go act on his behalf. Everyone who helped Lord Beaumont would receive some benefits.” Bloom now somewhat realized that these men in front of him most likely were looking to make trouble for Beaumont.

  “Many Saints. I imagine you were amongst them.” Desri sneered.

  “No, not, not me,” Bloom hurriedly said. Bloom was terrified that these people would instantly kill him in fury. How would he dare admit to participating?

  Linley let out a cold laugh. Actually, this topic was entirely pointless. After all, they hadn’t been present.

  “Fine. I’ll ask you. Where is Beaumont?” Linley barked.

  Bloom shook his head, lost.

  “Hm?” Linley’s face changed, and he stared at Bloom coldly. “It seems you really are quite loyal to Beaumont.”

  Bloom’s face changed dramatically. He hurriedly said, “I really don’t know. Milords, I’m telling the truth. I only know one thing. Lord Beaumont usually doesn’t live at the Yulan continent. He lives in the boundless seas.”

  Linley and Desri glanced at each other, both feeling that the situation just grew tricky.

  The seas?

  Although Linley had absorbed twenty million soul essences and his divine sense was powerful, Linley’s divine sense still only encapsulated an area of ten thousand kilometers. In the Yulan continent, that was fairly large. But in the endless seas, it was nothing at all. In addition, who knew if Beaumont was on the surface of the ocean, or in the bottom?

  “How do you usually communicate?” Desri snapped.

  “We don’t communicate…” Bloom said hurriedly.

  “Enough bullshit,” Linley said coldly. “You are able to stay in the Ro
hault Empire. How could you have no connection to Beaumont at all? If you keep on lying to us, you know what the consequences will be.” Linley was already furious. He could tell that this Bloom wasn’t telling the complete truth.

  The best way to lie was to mix in truth amongst the lies.

  Bloom was terrified. Instantly, he replied honestly, “Milords, Lord Beaumont is extremely cautious. He usually just reaches out to us through his divine sense, one at a time, to arrange us to work for him. He has promised us that after the Gold Soul-Pearls have been refined, we will get part of the benefits.”

  Gold Soul-Pearl?

  Linley began to understand. Refining soul essences didn’t necessarily require a specific amount of souls.

  For example, twenty million soul essences could be refined into a two- or three-centimeter-thick Gold Soul-Pearl, but a million soul essences could also be refined into smaller Gold Soul-Pearls.

  “This Beaumont is also capable of refining souls?" Linley finally asked the question he wanted to ask.

  There should only be very few Demigods who trained in the Edicts of Death.

  “Lord Beaumont isn’t capable of refining souls,” Bloom said with certainty. “We all know this. We have heard that amongst the Demigods, only the Grand Warlock is able to refine souls, but I heard that the Grand Warlock died three years ago.” Bloom had stayed in the Gebados Prison for a long time, and he knew many things.

  Linley instantly understood that this ‘Grand Warlock’ was the person he had killed.

  “If he isn’t capable of refining it, why is he collecting souls?” Desri asked directly.

  “I don’t know the answer to that either,” Bloom replied.

  “How often does that Beaumont reach out to you people?” Linley asked coldly.

  Bloom said hurriedly, “Generally speaking, every four to five days.” He didn’t dare to tell the complete truth; the reason it was every four to five days was because Beaumont would order them to hand over the now-filled soul crystals, while handing over empty ones.

  “How is Beaumont’s power, compared to the Grand Warlock?” Linley asked.