The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  Linley laughed as well.

  Just then, he really had been quite startled.

  When Salomon had said there was a divine sense probe, but he himself hadn’t discovered it, naturally that meant that the prober was a Highgod. To Linley, a Highgod was someone he had to be cautious about.

  “Mr. Salomon.” Delia laughed. “Don’t worry too much. No matter how powerful the bandits are, our metallic lifeform has Mr. Learmonth, right? With him, it’s not necessary for us to worry.” Delia wasn’t too worried.

  Salomon nodded in agreement.

  “Delia, you can’t say that,” Linley said.

  “Oh?” Delia looked at Linley.

  Linley warned, “Bandit groups are virtually all made up of Gods. Generally speaking, bandit groups that have a Highgod are top of the line groups. If a bandit group is so powerful as to have multiple Highgods, then the number of Gods in that group will also be exceedingly large.”

  Salomon and Delia both nodded.

  They all saw how that bandit group just now had a single Highgod, but hundreds of others.

  “If they really attack, true, we don’t need to fear the experts amongst them, as Learmonth and the others will deal with them. But with enemy forces being so numerous, we might be faced with the combined attacks of a large group of Gods,” Linley said resignedly. “After all, we only have a hundred or so Gods.”

  Delia just came to this realization.

  If they truly ran into a chaotic group battle, then how many people could Learmonth kill by himself at the same time? And even if he was able to save Linley and the others, perhaps he wouldn’t even care to.

  They were neither family nor friends; why save them?

  “It seems it is still best for us to be careful,” Delia said.

  “Boss, what are you all talking about?” Bebe and Nisse walked over together.

  When Linley looked at Bebe and Nisse, he couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Bebe, I’ve discovered that you and Nisse actually look rather similar.”

  “What?” Bebe looked confused, and then a look of sudden understanding appeared on his face. “Oh, I get it. Boss, have you discovered that you and Delia also look rather similar?”

  Linley was startled. He couldn’t help but share a glance with Delia.

  Husband and wife would naturally have a bit of the same aura.

  “This is known as, ‘spouses look alike’. Thus, Nisse and I look rather similar.” Bebe’s eyes fluttered as he looked at Nisse. “Nisse, am I right?”

  Nisse snorted, but her eyes had a hint of delight in them as well.

  Linley and Salomon exchanged a glance, then laughed. Bebe and Nisse… it seemed the two of them really did have a possibility of being together.

  The metallic lifeform’s journey was very peaceful. Linley’s group spent most of their time in training. Although Royalwing City and their destination, Bluemaple City, were four billion kilometers apart, that was if they travelled in a straight line. Linley’s group did not, however, travel in a straight line. They had to avoid some dangerous areas.

  In the blink of an eye, another four years passed. In Linley and Delia’s room.

  “Whew.” Linley opened his eyes.

  Delia seemed to have sensed something, and she opened her eyes as well. “Linley, why did you stop training?”

  “Delia, I’ve reached a bottleneck in my training of the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ in the Elemental Laws of the Wind,” Linley said with a strange expression.

  “Bottleneck? How is that possible?” Delia was greatly startled.

  Generally speaking, only after reaching the very end would a bottleneck appear when one was training in a profound mystery of the Laws. During the early and middle stages, one might be slow but one wouldn’t encounter any bottlenecks.

  “Linley, last time, didn’t you say that it would take you another twenty or thirty years to completely fuse them?” Delia asked.

  “Delia, four years ago, I guessed that I would need another twenty years before reaching a bottleneck, and then a few more years to break through the bottleneck to achieve mastery!” Linley shook his head and laughed. “But I was wrong. The profound mysteries of the Laws aren’t what I took them to be; I thought that the further I went along, the harder it would be.”

  “I didn’t train in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects separately. I compare and contrast them against each other and train them together.”

  “At first, it was true that I needed more and more time, but as I trained to the later stages and continued to compare, contrast, and hypothesize, my breakthrough speed actually increased. The ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects are akin to two roads that first start off in opposite directions, and so the further you walk along them, the more distant each road will become. However, when reaching a certain distance, the two will begin to draw close to each other. As you compare and contrast them, the two roads will draw nearer and nearer, and now, I’ve already reached the end stages of fusing them together.” Linley shook his head. “Only, I’ve become stuck in this training bottleneck.”

  Delia began to understand it generally.

  As a God of the wind-style, Delia had also trained in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ profound mysteries.

  However, Delia was not able to make them fuse, nor did she understand… how the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ profound mysteries, seemingly opposites, could be fused together.

  “Come, let’s go get some food.” Linley wasn’t going to try and force it. Upon reaching a bottleneck, he would first relax and then train later.

  “Another divine sense?” Linley suddenly frowned.

  Just now, a God-level divine sense swept over the metallic lifeform.

  Delia laughed. “On the way over, we’ve encountered so many probes. Even Gods dare to use their divine sense to probe us. Most likely, if they found that we are very weak, they would immediately come to attack and loot us.”

  “Forget them.” Linley was irritated with these bandit groups as well.

  The people in this metallic lifeform had become accustomed to the divine sense probes of these bandit groups. They couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them. After all, they knew… that if they were to leave the metallic lifeform to attack the bandits, they probably wouldn’t be able to catch that many.

  Today, yet another Highgod divine sense swept across the metallic lifeform.

  But the Fiends inside the metallic lifeform continued to drink, to train, to chat. Nobody cared.

  “Everyone, disperse!”

  A youth with curly, silver hair led his hundred subordinates to rush down and flee, retreating into the depths of the mountain valleys below.

  “Whoooosh!” The metallic creature didn’t slow down in the slightest, disappearing into the horizons.

  But deep within a deep gorge.

  “Drip, drip…”

  Water flowed through the channels of a creek.

  “After waiting so many years, I’ve finally encountered you.” The youth with curly, silver hair stood atop the pool of water. Behind him, a muscular, black-robed man was standing respectfully.

  “Hayde!” the silver-haired youth said coldly.

  “Lord.” The black-robed man bowed.

  The silver-haired youth said seriously, “Immediately notify young master Inigo. Tell him that we have discovered the squad where those two old fellows are in. As long as the young master knows that the metallic lifeform passed by our place, he will easily be able to judge the general direction it will head in next.”

  “Yes, milord.” The black-robed man nodded slightly.

  Hundreds of millions of kilometers away from the silver-haired youth, within Red Orchid City, there was a hotel that had been completely booked by a group of hundreds of people.

  In one of the courtyards within the hotel, there was a devilish youth with long, blood-red hair who was seated on a chair, flipping through a heavy tome. A nearby servant said respectfully, “Young master, Hayde is outside waiting to see yo
u.”

  “Hayde?” The blood-red-haired youth frowned. “Who is Hayde?”

  “One of our messengers,” the servant said respectfully.

  In the Infernal Realm, messages were usually carried by someone who had divine clones located in separate areas.

  For example, one might be in the Nightblaze Prefecture, while the other might be in the Rainbow Prefecture. Although there was a distance of billions of kilometers, since the two clones really were the same person, anything one clone knew, the other one billions of kilometers away would also know.

  This was a fairly normal form of communication in the Infernal Realm.

  “We finally found those two old fellows?” The youth was immediately overjoyed. “Hurry up and have him come in.”

  “Yes.”

  A man who looked identical to the muscular black-robed man called ‘Hayde’ entered the courtyard, immediately falling respectfully to one knee. “Young master Inigo, Lord Padgett has instructed me to inform you, young master, that the metallic lifeform carrying those two old fellows just passed by his location.”

  “Oh?”

  Inigo was instantly overjoyed. With a flip of his hand, an enormous detailed map appeared on the table.

  “Passed by Padgett? Then it seems the squad these two fellows are travelling in will pass through this place, the Nisiwan Mountain Range. Since they’ve selected this route, then…” Inigo stared at the map, a hint of a smile on his face.

  “The web I set up has finally found those two old fellows.”

  Inigo nodded slightly. “I don’t know how strong the Fiends that those two old fellows have recruited are. Right. I first have to probe them.”

  “Immediately send a message back and tell Vionnaz. Have him prepare his forces and immediately go to the area near the Bulu River. Those two old fellows will definitely pass through his area,” Inigo immediately instructed his servant.

  “Yes, young master.” The servant immediately acknowledged and left.

  Right now, the only one left in the courtyard was Inigo.

  Inigo narrowed his eyes slightly, murmuring, “Those two old fellows. They’ve taken all the wealth of their master’s clan and run all the way to the Redbud Continent. They definitely have major aims.” And then, Inigo sneered coldly. “But no matter what they are aiming for, once I get the astonishing wealth that those two old fellows are carrying, I will benefit tremendously.”

  Inigo’s face was all smiles.

  “The ancient Boyd clan. How much wealth have they accumulated?” Inigo’s eyes were filled with intrigue.

  “Inigo.” Suddenly, an ancient voice rang out, and a silver-haired elder wearing a green robe entered the courtyard.

  “Oh, Teacher,” Inigo hurriedly said.

  The green-robed silver-haired elder shook his head. “Inigo, you’ve brought so many people with you and spent so much money. If you end up getting nothing, then…”

  “Teacher,” Inigo said in a quiet voice. “Don’t worry. If I fail, then the wealth I built up over all these years will be gone, that’s all. But if I succeed… Teacher, the Boyd clan is finished, but those two old fellows took all of their wealth as they fled.”

  “The massive wealth accumulated by the Boyd clan over all those years.” Inigo’s heart trembled just thinking of it.

  But the green-robed elder still frowned. “Inigo, think about it. If you had such an astonishing amount of wealth, why wouldn’t you hide? Instead, they invited all of those Fiends to escort them. It seems as though they are actually intending to return to the Jadefloat Continent.”

  Inigo frowned. “As for this, I’m rather curious as well.”

  “If I were in their shoes, I would have fled and disappeared long ago.” Inigo laughed. “However, Teacher, no matter what, right now, we have already discovered their traces. As long as we kill those two old folks and seize their interspatial ring…”

  “I hope you will be successful,” the green-robed elder said.

  35

  Strength in Numbers

  The metallic lifeform flew at a high, stable speed. Linley and Delia’s room. Linley was staring outside the window at the vast world. There were many humans, and also many beastmen, magical beasts, and other races of creatures.

  “Those are all Saints.” Linley was able to judge.

  In the Infernal Realm, the vast majority were still at the Saint-level. Countless Saints were spread across every part of the Infernal Realm. Only, their lives had no guarantees at all.

  “If I had entered the Infernal Realm when I was a Saint, then… I would have been in trouble,” Linley couldn’t help but say to himself. “That Hodan… when I was just a Saint, he tried to lure me into entering the Infernal Realm. He definitely had bad intentions.”

  “Linley, what are you thinking about?” Delia asked, puzzled.

  “Nothing.” Linley laughed and shook his head. “Delia, we’ve been on this metallic creature for over ten years now. Time has moved quite quickly.”

  “Right. Ten years. Most likely, in another ten years, we’ll be at Bluemaple City. I hope that before you can reach Bluemaple City, you’ll have reached the God level in the Elemental Laws of the Wind.” Delia laughed.

  “Let my divine wind clone also reach the God level?” Linley himself was not certain in his ability to do so. Breaking through a bottleneck could happen very quickly, but if it happened slowly… nobody could be certain as to how long it would take.

  Just as Linley and Delia were chatting…

  Salomon and Nisse were in a room together as well.

  “Big bro, why did you want to speak to me?” Nisse laughed as she looked at her big brother.

  Salomon looked at Nisse. She was currently wearing a straw hat on her head that Bebe had given her.

  “Nisse, you truly wish to be together with that Bebe?” Salomon’s voice was very low and very solemn as he spoke.

  Nisse’s smile slowly disappeared, and she nodded seriously. “Big bro, actually, I didn’t want to go to the Jadefloat Continent to begin with. Only, I didn’t want to part from you. When I think about those years we spent at the Jadefloat Continent and those attacks we suffered, I…” She couldn’t help but clench her fists.

  Salomon sighed to himself, then said, “I understand. Now, I want to ask about you and Bebe. What are you planning?”

  “Big bro, Bebe is a really good person. Although he occasionally likes to joke and play around, he is very sincere to others, and treats me very well. When I am with Bebe… I feel that I am very happy and carefree, without any worries at all.” Nisse had a smile on her face now. “Sometimes, when I’m not happy, Bebe will come coax me. Big bro, don’t just look at the way Bebe fools around. Bebe is actually exceedingly smart. Whenever I am even slightly unhappy, he’ll immediately know.”

  “I like the feeling of being together with Bebe.” Nisse looked at her big brother. “Big bro, I’m sorry.”

  Salomon said in a low voice, “Are you… no longer planning to go with me to the Jadefloat Continent?”

  “I’m not going anymore.” Nisse shook her head.

  Salomon maintained his silence. He had been together with his little sister, ‘Nisse’, for many years. Naturally, he couldn’t bear to part from her.

  “Big bro, I’m sorry,” Nisse said quietly.

  Salomon shook his head and laughed. “The trip back to the Jadefloat Continent was going to be dangerous no matter what. This is for the better. You can be with Bebe for now. Once I return to the Jadefloat Continent and arrange everything, you and Bebe, when you have free time, can come to the Jadefloat Continent to look for me.”

  Nisse couldn’t help but feel excited.

  “Big bro!” Nisse excitedly hugged her older brother.

  “Heh heh.” Salomon began to laugh. “It’s fine, it’s fine. But Nisse, when you and Bebe are together, you need to be careful. I won’t be by your side then.”

  “Got it, big bro!” Nisse hurriedly said. “Don’t worry. By then, we will find
an ordinary escort mission. It won’t be very dangerous. Look, we’ve been on this metallic lifeform for a dozen years now, but we haven’t encountered any dangers.”

  “BANG!”

  Suddenly, the metallic creature shuddered, and both Nisse and Salomon’s bodies swayed.

  “Whoosh!” The entire metallic creature shrank into a single human form, while all of the people within the creature were now hovering in mid-air. A hundred-plus people were all rather astonished. Many Fiends had been in the middle of their training, but right now, they were all startled awake.

  At this moment…

  Ahead of the hundred plus people, there was a large number of Deities hovering in mid-air. The number was so high that the One Star Fiends and Two Star Fiends like Linley were all so frightened, their faces changed.

  “Boss, how many people are there here?” Bebe stared with round eyes.

  “It seems like there’s roughly ten thousand.” Linley’s heart clenched. “Nearly ten thousand experts, and it seems all of them are at least Gods, while a few are Highgods! Such a large group, if they were to charge and attack all together, then the results…”

  Linley’s heart grew nervous.

  “Bebe, afterwards, we’ll come to this side. Delia, later, you use the Deathgod Golem,” Linley hurriedly instructed. “At this time, focus our efforts on preserving our lives. Let the Six Star Fiend defeat the foes.”

  “Ninny, come over here,” Bebe immediately called out.

  “Bebe.” Nisse actually had a smile on her face. Clearly, she was rather excited at the thought of being together with Bebe. Salomon flew over as well, joining Linley’s group.

  Salomon was somewhat worried as well. He said in a low voice, “This will be trouble. So many people. Even a Highgod will find it dangerous to deal with the combined attacks of hundreds of Gods, much less the nearly ten thousand we have here.”

  “Everyone!”

  A sonorous voice rang out in the air. “The reason you have stopped us is for the sake of money. Today, we don’t want to fight with you to the death either. There’s no benefit for either side in doing so. Name a price. As long as it is within our range of acceptableness, I will immediately offer it to you. Is this acceptable?”