You couldn’t just choose to like something. For example, if you saw an extremely ugly woman, no matter how hard you tried to make yourself ‘like’ her, you wouldn’t be able to do it. The choices of your innate nature were unchangeable.
“Mr. Burgess, why have you come?” Bebe called out loudly.
Linley now opened his eyes and immediately rose up. With a laugh, he said, “Mr. Burgess.”
The bald man, Burgess, laughed loudly. “Linley, I know that you train in the Laws of the Earth. By coincidence, I too train in the Laws of the Earth. Let’s have a spar between you and me. What say you?”
“This… this is wonderful, of course.” Linley was very surprised and pleased.
Sparring with an expert who trained in the same Laws, especially someone much more powerful, was an extremely rare opportunity. After all, this meant the stronger person had to lower themselves to train with you.
Although it was described as ‘sparring’, in reality the other was helping him and guiding him!
“Haha… I’m rather stupid. I’ve only trained in two of the profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth. One is the Profound Mysteries of the ‘Essence of the Earth’, while the other is the Profound Mysteries of Strength.
Linley’s heart leapt.
He now knew of yet another profound mystery of the Laws of the Earth; the Profound Mysteries of Strength.
“Rumble…” A large amount of earth elemental essence solidified, and the body of the bald man, Burgess, became covered with a sparkling earthen armor.
“Not the color of adamantine?” Linley was secretly surprised.
“Linley, against you, there’s no need for me to utilize the Profound Mysteries of Strength. I’ll directly utilize the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of the Earth. Careful!” Burgess laughed loudly, and as he spoke, he kicked off the ground powerfully, charging forward while smashing towards Linley with his fist.
The sun reflected off of his sparkling earthen armor in a dazzling manner. Burgess’ right fist actually transformed into the head of a vicious wolf that opened its mouth and bit downwards.
“Hoooooowl!” The vicious wolf actually let out a howling sound.
Linley’s face changed. He wanted to retreat, but Burgess had actually utilized his Godrealm. As a God, Burgess’ Godrealm had caused Linley’s speed to drop dramatically.
“Clang!” Bloodviolet clashed against that vicious wolf’s head first.
Linley was sent blasting backwards like a sandbag. With a ‘boom’, he smashed viciously into the deep pool of water like a meteorite, sending water spraying everywhere. Under the light of the sun, the water drops spraying everywhere seemed like sparkling jewels.
“Hey, that’s way too weak.” Burgess shook his head.
“Boom!” Linley erupted out from the surface of the water, then landed on the ground. Staring at Burgess, he immediately asked, “Mr. Burgess, how is it that the vicious wolf’s head which your fist had transformed into could have such power? How could its hardness be on a level with a divine artifact?” Linley felt utterly mystified by what had just happened.
Burgess quirked his lips. “Think about it for yourself.”
Linley’s smile froze.
“Alright. Let’s do it again.” Linley gritted his teeth.
From this day onwards, each day, Linley would be defeated by Burgess three times. Burgess never gave him any guidance. Any questions Linley had, he would tell Linley to go think about it for himself. Actually… even if Burgess had explained it, he wouldn’t be able to truly explain it clearly.
After all, in order to understand the profound mysteries of the ‘Essence of the Earth’, Burgess had spent over a thousand years.
Linley sparred with Burgess, while Bebe sparred with that white-robed man.
With this sort of continued ‘sparring’, Linley’s rate of improvement in understanding the ‘Essence of the Earth’ increased greatly.
Once again, Linley was sent flying. As he fell down onto the ground, a smile actually appeared on his face.
“I was wrong, wrong!”
Linley began to laugh loudly. “It isn’t dead. It isn’t dead.”
“I never understood what the power behind the throbbing pulse everywhere in the boundless earth was all about. Now, I understand. I understand. The Throbbing Pulse of the World. Haha. So this is the Throbbing Pulse of the World!” Linley seemed to have gone mad, as he raised his head and laughed wildly. And just as Linley began to laugh loudly…
An enormous, unique, irresistible surge of force descended. The space around Linley became distorted. In the face of this unique presence that was like the Laws, any creature, no matter how powerful, was like nothing but an ant.
Even Burgess couldn’t help but tremble.
The bald Burgess, who had just defeated Linley yet again and was preparing to delightedly lecture him, was stupefied. “This Linley, he… he broke through, just like that. Isn’t this too monstrous?” Burgess finally understood the difference between himself and a genius.
109
The Throbbing Pulse of the World
The natural Laws descended.
Even Bebe and the white-robed man, who had been sparring, had their attention drawn and came over. Bebe moved like a flash of lightning through the mountain forests and arrived within the gorge. He saw Linley hovering there, and his eyes became filled with delight. “Boss, you’ve finally mastered the Throbbing Pulse of the World?”
“Big Brother, what’s going on? He… he broke through, just like that?” The white-robed man flew over, also very surprised.
The bald man, Burgess, said in a state of some confusion, “Just then, I knocked him down. I don’t know what caused him to gain a sudden insight, but he actually broke through. Look, isn’t this… this is so discouraging to me.”
“No wonder Third Brother praised him.” The white-robed man looked towards Linley as well.
As though through teleportation, yet another person appeared in the ground of the gorge. It was the crimson-eyebrowed Leylin. Bebe glanced at Leylin, somewhat surprised. “This Lord of Mount Copper Gong is too powerful. However, Grandpa had said before that no expert, no matter how powerful, is capable of teleportation. I don’t know what techniques this Leylin used.”
Leylin smiled, hovering in mid-air as he watched Linley. He nodded as though in satisfaction.
Space blurred and distorted.
“Rumble…” Countless amounts of earth elemental essence surged towards the air above Linley, and that unique force surrounded Linley’s soul, seeming to be able to see completely through his soul and understand everything within it. In the air above Linley, the earth elemental essence continued to gather at an even more rapid rate.
Suddenly…
“BOOM!” The earth elemental essences dissipated, and in the area where they previously had been, there was a black jewel-like object that glimmered faintly with earthen yellow light.
The divine spark’s nature was of course connected to Linley’s soul.
“Earth-style divine spark.” Linley felt a surge of joy in his heart. Linley had already had experience and been prepared for this long ago.
“Finally, I have become a Deity in both the earth-style and the wind-style.” Linley couldn’t help but feel excited. But at the same time, within Linley’s mind, he couldn’t help but think of Leylin. “I truly must thank this Lord of Mount Copper Gong, for me to be able to break through the bottleneck so quickly this time.”
“Should I form another divine clone?” Linley could sense the information that the natural Laws were transmitting to him.
Without hesitating at all, Linley controlled the earth-style divine spark to hover next to him, outside his body. A hint of a smile was on Linley’s lips. “Once again, my spirit will split in two. From today onwards, I’ll have yet another body, while at the same time, I can train in still more Laws. Only, this pain of the soul being split…”
“Aaaaah!” Linley’s muscles throughout his body
began to convulse. The pain of his soul being split in half caused Linley’s face to instantly turn pale and utterly bloodless.
“It seems this Linley still wishes to train in other Laws.” Leylin exhaled in appreciation. “He actually chose to once again split his soul in half.” Leylin knew full well how agonizing it was for the soul to be split in half. When one’s soul was forcefully ripped in half, even the most powerful of experts wouldn’t be able to refrain from screaming.
Fortunately, in that moment of becoming a Deity, one’s soul would be protected by the natural Laws.
Right now, the soul tearing wouldn’t cause any problems. Under normal circumstances, however, a simple vibration that was powerful enough could cause the soul to truly collapse and the spirit to shatter, to say nothing of the soul being broken in half.
A sword-shaped soul flew out from Linley’s body, fusing with that earth-style divine spark hovering in mid-air.
“Sword-shaped soul?” Leylin’s eyes lit up. “He has potential to train in the Laws of Destruction.”
For now, Linley once more found himself within that boundless, infinite, unique plane – the Elemental Sea.
That indistinct, hazy area was filled with the boundless Elemental Sea. Waves rose and fell, and the earthen yellow waves were filled with liquefied earth essence. Deeper within it was more and more pure earth-style divine power. Linley worked hard to delve deeper into the depths in search of that divine power.
Divine earth power surrounded his earth-style divine spark, forming an earth-style divine clone that looked identical to Linley.
“Bodies formed from the natural Laws are always created naked.” Linley immediately used his divine earth power to create an earthen yellow robe for his divine earth clone. With but a thought, his divine wind clone also appeared from within his original body.
Divine earth clone, divine wind clone. His two mighty divine clones circled around his original body.
And then, the two divine clones both fused into his original body.
Within Linley’s sea of consciousness, the yellow-robed Linley and the green-robed Linley sat in the meditative position within the sea of consciousness, while in the air above the two divine clones, there hovered a rainbow-colored sword-shaped soul. Only, the size of it was much smaller than before.
Within Mount Copper Gong. Landing on the ground, Linley opened his eyes and as he did, he saw Leylin, Leylin’s friends, and Bebe.
“Boss.” Bebe’s eyes were filled with delight, and he grinned widely. At the same time, he gave Linley a big thumbs up. “In but half a year here at Mount Copper Gong, you managed to become a Deity through the Elemental Laws of the Earth as well. Oh, right. Boss. Was it through the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of the Earth, or the Profound Mysteries of the Throbbing Pulse of the World?”
“The Throbbing Pulse of the World!” Linley said with a laugh.
“Linley, congratulations,” the Lord of Mount Copper Gong, Leylin, said with a calm smile.
Linley looked towards Leylin, immediately growing somber. And then, he bowed in a very formal manner, saying with gratitude, “Mr. Leylin, I am truly grateful for the assistance the three of you provided. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know how long it would have taken me to break through this bottleneck.”
“No need to thank me. If there are thanks to be given, we three brothers should be thanking you,” Leylin said.
“Huh?” Linley was startled.
Leylin, thank him? Why thank him?
The bald man, Burgess, laughed loudly, “Haha. Linley, if it wasn’t for you and those other two Demigods, we three brothers would most likely still be within the Gebados Planar Prison.”
Linley and Bebe instantly understood.
“So it seems this Leylin truly did escape from the Gebados Planar Prison as well,” Linley secretly said to himself.
“Boss. It seems Olivier’s sword strike actually did something good.” Bebe laughed.
Leylin looked at Linley. With a calm smile, he said, “Linley, right now, you have only reached the Demigod stage in the Laws of the Earth. Although you have gained mastery over the Throbbing Pulse of the World, to an expert, insights are only one factor; knowing how to apply them is what is most important.”
Linley, also having this feeling, nodded.
Indeed, after becoming a Demigod through the Laws of the Wind, he still had to research for quite some time before developing the ‘Hymn of the Wind’.
“Bebe, it’s best if you don’t disturb Linley for now and allow him to quietly focus on sensing the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’. When he is able to better utilize the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, he will be able to produce more powerful attacks,” Leylin looked towards Bebe and said.
“I know.” Bebe nodded repeatedly.
After someone had gained an insight into the Laws, he needed to go think about how to apply them as soon as possible.
“Linley, keep training. In a while, you should be on a level comparable with my big brother,” Leylin said.
“How can that be the case?” Linley laughed self-mockingly. “I’m only a Demigod, after all.”
“But you have two divine clones,” Leylin said with a laugh.
“This… so what if I have two?” Linley was somewhat puzzled. “The restrictive power of the Godrealm of a full God is too powerful. I can only just barely counteract part of it.”
Leylin said with a laugh, “You don’t even know this?”
“Huh?” Linley didn’t understand.
“Linley, your two divine clones are currently merged within your original body. Each divine spark is capable of creating a Godrealm. Your two divine sparks are both capable of creating Godrealms. With the two Godrealms layered atop each other, the restrictive power you will be under will be much weaker,” Leylin explained.
Linley started.
Originally, when Beirut had said a Demigod was inferior to a God, that was just in one-on-one combat.
In reality, for someone like Linley, it was as though he had two divine clones that were joining forces.
“The Godrealm of two divine clones layered atop each other might not be able to completely counteract the Godrealm of a full God, but the restrictive power will be much less. At that point, you can rely on your techniques and your profound mysteries to reach a level of parity with my big brother,” Leylin said.
Linley now felt a surge of excitement in his heart.
So having additional divine clones had this benefit as well.
Since Linley had to quietly train on utilizing the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ for attacking techniques, he naturally would no longer spar with the bald man, Burgess. Bebe didn’t disturb Linley’s meditations either. Normally, he would spar with the white-robed man in a place that was fairly far away.
Within the mountain gorge. Linley was by himself.
“The forbidden-level spell, ‘Pulsating Guard’, controls the ‘pulsating power’ that the earth contains.” Once that forbidden-level spell was cast, it would create a seemingly translucent barrier. This was formed from the ‘pulsating power’ that the earth naturally contained.
In the past, Linley didn’t understand how this ‘pulsating power’ was created.
“In the past, I believed this pulsating power isn’t the same as ordinary elemental essence, and was a new type of force. But now it seems… it just needs to be transformed.” After completely understanding the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, Linley saw many things clearly. “In using the Throbbing Pulse of the World, aside from using vibrations to attack, I should be able to use this pulsating power to attack.”
Linley stood atop the earth, the divine power in his body surging.
That strange pulsating power passed through Linley’s feet into the earth, then broadcast outwards towards the deep pool in front of him.
“BOOM!” Water erupted forth from the pool.
“This sort of attack is silent and gives no warning.” Linley had a hint of a smile at the
corner of his mouth. “If I were to train for a while longer, it should become even more powerful.”
Rohault Empire. Within that secluded manor.
“Linley is actually training by himself?” Sadista had spread his divine sense out towards Mount Copper Gong once again. Naturally, he discovered that Linley was training alone. “This Linley truly is formidable. He has reached the Demigod stage in the Laws of the Earth as well.”
Sadista’s eyes revealed a cold light.
The greater Linley’s potential was, the more Sadista wanted to kill him.
“I definitely cannot permit Linley to go to the Infernal Realm and return to the Indigo Prefecture.” Sadista was certain on this point. “There are only two Gods at Mount Copper Gong. If Anras moves fast enough, he should be able to kill Linley in a short amount of time.”
Sadista was still fairly confident in Anras.
This was because Anras trained in the Elemental Laws of Fire, famed for attack power.
“Anras…” Sadista immediately reached out with his divine sense towards Anras.
Tonight was a dark and cloudy night. The wind was very strong.
A human figure was flying in mid-air at high speed. It was the red-robed Anras. Anras stared towards the south. “After waiting for so long, the opportunity has finally come.” Just now, Sadista had provided him with Linley’s location and a map through his divine sense.
Anras knew exactly where Linley was.
A faint red light began to glow in the eyes of Anras.
Soon, Mount Copper Gong appeared within Anras’ field of vision. Anras’ face grew still colder. He was very familiar with Mount Copper Gong’s layout. He easily sped downwards, passing through the mountain forests and drawing near the location where Linley was training in the gorge.
Within that manor formed from earth elemental essence.
“That arrogant fellow. He had been spreading his divine sense over to investigate time and time again. So he really did have nefarious intentions.” Leylin let out a calm laugh. Sadista had thought that no one would notice his repeated divine sense investigations in the area, but what he didn’t know was that Leylin had been fully aware of him.
Gods of Yulan: Book 4 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 86
