The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “Bang!” The Pulseguard Armor on linley’s body only resisted for an instant, then directly collapsed. Linley was sent smashing far away, with blood, flesh, and bones flying everywhere. His entire body had lost half of its mass as those lightning dragons had attacked Linley, trying to destroy him!

  Bebe had just been delighted, but then upon seeing Linley immediately face death, he grew terrified anew.

  “Boss!” Bebe’s eyes were filled with concern.

  “Not good!” As Linley’s Pulseguard Armor was shattered, his body had immediately transformed. The divine earth clone and his main body immediately swapped, but despite swapping out quickly, Linley’s divine earth clone still only had half its body and a head left.

  In the recent battles, Linley had used the divine earth clone.

  After all, the divine earth clone was the most powerful, and when using it to use attacks dependent on the Laws of the Earth, using his earth clone meant the attacks would be most powerful.

  In this situation, Linley had to choose to switch bodies. After all, if his divine earth clone continued to take blows like these, the divine earth clone would most likely be shattered.

  “I’ll have to see how strong my Dragonform’s defense is!” Linley’s original body was Dragonformed!

  “BOOM!”

  The four lightning dragons finally dispersed. Linley collapsed where he stood from the explosion, the azure-gold draconic scales covering his body broken and battered, and multiple spikes on his back shattered as well. His left arm had been completely blown off, while his waist had almost been blown through as well.

  “What astonishing defense!” The skinny, cruel man couldn’t help but be amazed.

  Actually, the attack he had used just now had used up nearly half of its strength in breaking through the Pulseguard Armor. At the critical moment, Linley had swapped out his body, using his main body in Dragonform to take it head on. Although it was very difficult, the defense in Dragonform was indeed exceedingly great, just slightly inferior to the Pulseguard Armor.

  He was badly injured, but at least he had saved his life.

  “What a talent.” The skinny, cruel man sighed to himself. Linley’s soul attack and his defense, despite being just a God… the skinny, cruel man understood that if Linley was born into a major clan, he would definitely be one of their most highly valued talents to be cultivated.

  “Unfortunately, you’ll die in my hands,” the skinny, cruel man said to himself calmly.

  “Am I about to die?” Linley’s badly wounded body lay there on the ground. He couldn’t help but feel a surge of helplessness. There was indeed a great difference between himself and a Highgod. Once the opponent noticed his Voidwave Sword, then he probably would be finished.

  “Crackle…”

  Right at this moment…

  Linley sensed that from within the Coiling Dragon ring, surges of unique energy began to fill his body. Linley’s body was instantly repaired, and the draconic scales and spikes on his back were all healed as well. At the same time, that unique energy filled his draconic scales, spikes, and every other part of his body, strengthening the power of Linley’s draconic scales.

  On the surface of Linley’s draconic scales, a layer of azure light was shining.

  “What is this?” Linley immediately filled the Coiling Dragon ring with his spiritual energy.

  “The three blue drops of water?” When Linley had become a Deity, the Coiling Dragon ring had a single golden drop of liquid as well as three blue drops of water within it. At that time, the golden liquid had transformed Linley’s Dragonform, while Linley had yet to find a use for the three blue drops of water.

  But now, one of the three blue drops of water was emitting an azure energy that was filling Linley’s body, strengthening Linley’s Dragonform.

  “Huh?” The skinny, cruel man saw that Linley’s body had instantly healed. His face couldn’t help but change.

  “Hmph.”

  The skinny cruel man let out a cold sneer. His hands stretched out like claws, and six lightning dragons pounced towards Linley.

  “NO!!!!” The frantic, furious Bebe had already charged next to the skinny, cruel man, but he wasn’t going to make it in time to save Linley. Bebe’s heart was filled with regret and self-hate. If Linley were to have died due to saving Nisse, Bebe would never forgive himself for the rest of his life.

  “You can die together.”

  41

  Meeting

  “I feel so powerful!”

  In a short amount of time, one of the three blue drops of water completely converted into energy, fusing with Linley’s original body, repeatedly strengthening Linley’s draconic scales. Linley’s scales defensive power was rising at an absolutely stupefying speed!

  The three blue drops of water had now become just two.

  “Huh?” Linley was suddenly startled into wakefulness. “Six lightning dragons?” Linley was shocked and frightened.

  Six flashing lightning dragons bellowed and attacked Linley.

  Before this, the attack of just four flashing lightning dragons had not only shattered the Pulseguard Armor but also had caused serious injury to Linley. Now there were six of them. Linley wasn’t able to form the Pulseguard Armor in time. The only thing he could do was…

  “Swoosh!” Linley flew backwards, trying to dodge.

  But how could a person’s movement speed compare to the speed of an attack?

  “Bang!”

  The six bellowing lightning dragons all smashed against Linley, and even the nearby walls of sand exploded from the collision.

  “Boss!” Bebe, seeing Linley being struck by those six lightning dragons that exploded against his body, was terrified to the point of losing his mind.

  “Don’t— don’t die.” The distant Nisse’s heart was filled with terror as well.

  She didn’t know what to do.

  “If Bebe’s Boss dies, Bebe will definitely be miserable. His Boss did this only for the sake of saving me.” Nisse could only stand there in the distance. She didn’t have any ability to interfere. This sense of helplessness filled Nisse’s heart with guilt.

  Bebe, because Linley had been attacked, had lost his wits for a moment, but when experts were battling, how could they possibly lose their focus?

  “Daydreaming in a battle?” The skinny, cruel man’s lightning-like sword flashed down viciously, striking against Bebe. Bebe’s body was sent flying away, while at the same time, an illusory electric serpent ignored Bebe’s defense, directly entering Bebe’s body.

  A soul attack!

  “Huh?” The skinny, cruel man suddenly turned to look back.

  After the explosion of the six lightning dragons, Linley was just standing there, azure light flowing atop his azure-golden draconic scales. Surges of power emanated from his draconic scales. The strength of his aura caused even the skinny, cruel man to feel terror in his heart.

  “What… what is this aura?” The skinny, cruel man couldn’t believe it.

  He was certain that what he feared right now wasn’t Linley himself, but rather it was the aura coming off of the draconic scales.

  Linley’s cold, dark-golden eyes stared at the skinny, cruel man. His lips curved upwards slightly, and this skinny, cruel man was completely unable to ascertain if Linley was smiling or not.

  “I… have to thank you,” Linley said calmly.

  The skinny, cruel man was stunned. Thank him?

  Linley knew very clearly that if it hadn’t been for the skinny, cruel man nearly destroying his original body, which caused this ‘blue water drop’ to suddenly send its energy into his body and transform it, there is no way that Linley would have been able to utilize this blue water drop.

  Currently, he had used up one of them, but Linley was still overjoyed.

  This was because he could clearly sense that currently in Dragonform, he possessed incomparable, boundless strength! Absolute strength! Physical strength of the body!

  “Boss!” Bebe
’s delighted voice rang out.

  “What?!” The skinny, cruel man turned to look and was astonished. Bebe had suffered his soul attack, but hadn’t died. “How is this possible. A mere God who suffered my soul attack didn’t die?” The skinny, cruel man was completely unable to accept this, but instantly, he had a thought. “Can it be, can it be that he has a soul-protecting divine artifact?”

  “Impossible. How can that be?” The skinny, cruel man couldn’t believe this conjecture.

  Soul-protecting divine artifacts were very special!

  They weren’t like ordinary swords, sabers, armor, and other artifacts which were easy to forge. In the entire Infernal Realm, there were exceedingly few people capable of forging ‘soul-protecting divine artifacts’, and many Highgods didn’t have that sort of ability. The damndest thing was… there were no soul-protecting divine artifacts for sale!

  Linley’s group, upon arriving in the Infernal Realm, had yet to find a single soul-protecting divine artifact for sale. If there were, Linley would have bought one for Delia long ago.

  This was because once a person was killed, his soul-protecting divine artifact would definitely be damaged as well. A damaged soul-protecting divine artifact was generally useless.

  Also…

  There was more to it than that. Soul-protecting divine artifacts weren’t made from special ores; they were forged from ‘spiritual energy’. For example, for Linley to repair his soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, he had to use his spiritual energy to repair it. This was because… soul-protecting divine artifacts were made out of spiritual energy to begin with.

  Only, they had a rather special structure!

  Because they were made out of spiritual energy, soul-protecting artifacts couldn’t be easily tamed and commanded just through blood binding. There were many profound mysteries that were involved in these things! Only the original creator of the soul-protecting divine artifact, by using some special methods, could allow for his soul-protecting divine artifact to be used by others.

  Thus…

  Anyone who had a soul-protecting divine artifact had definitely received permission from the creator of the artifact.

  And every single creator of a soul-protecting divine artifact was, without a doubt, one of the ultimate experts of the Infernal Realm! Every single one was extremely accomplished in understanding the soul, and had reached terrifying heights.

  “This kid with a straw hat… he has a major figure backing him up?” The skinny, cruel man came to this judgment.

  “And that Draconian! The aura coming off from his body is so terrifying.” The skinny man’s heart quivered. “What is going on. One has a soul-protecting divine artifact, while the other has such terrifying defense.”

  Right now, the distant Nisse was overjoyed. “Bebe’s Boss didn’t die. Bebe’s also fine. Wonderful, wonderful!”

  “Haha, Boss, let’s kill this bastard together,” Bebe said through their souls.

  “Fine!” Linley was exceedingly happy as well.

  The powerful strength he felt in his Dragonform caused Linley to want to let loose.

  “Swoosh!” Bebe’s dagger shot out like lightning towards the skinny, cruel man.

  “Whoosh!” Linley launched himself from the ground.

  Linley shot out like an arrow, exploding forward and moving so quickly that his body turned into a blur. Linley’s right leg danced out like a saber, chopping down with a fierce, azure-golden light towards the neck of that skinny, cruel man.

  The speed was too fast!

  “Who cares who you are? Kill!!!” The skinny, cruel man was angry now as well.

  “Clang!”

  The longsword in his hand collided head on with the draconic scales on Linley’s right leg, creating a metallic ringing sound. After having absorbed a drop of that ‘blue water’ and having been strengthened to a terrifying degree, Linley’s draconic scales were not one whit inferior to a Highgod artifact.

  Linley’s body landed.

  “How is that possible?!” The skinny, cruel man’s face changed dramatically. Today, he had been shocked too many times.

  Bebe came howling forth as well.

  “You have a soul-protecting divine artifact. Then, I shall use a material attack! The skinny man’s body once more emitted those four lightning dragons towards Bebe, who didn’t dodge at all, instead charging at high speed towards those four lightning dragons.

  “BOOM!”

  The four lightning dragons landed directly on Bebe, then dispersed, but Bebe wasn’t hurt at all.

  “Die.” Bebe’s eyes were filled with murder.

  “How is this possible?!” The skinny, cruel man’s mind was in utter chaos. Linley’s freakishly strong draconic scale defense, Bebe’s soul-protecting divine artifact… and now, Bebe used his terrifying physical defense to blast through one lightning dragon after another. The skinny, cruel man was at the verge of insanity. “Who are you guys?!”

  “Swish!” A metallic tail slapped over lightning-fast.

  “Clang!”

  The sword and the iron-whip-like draconic tail clashed. The skinny, cruel man borrowed that force to retreat backwards. Ignoring all else, what he decided he needed to do was… flee!

  “Freaks! Two freaks!” the skinny, cruel man cursed angrily. “Such freakishly strong defense, and a soul-protecting divine artifact as well. Can they be two young masters from a major clan? But how can the young masters of a large clan come wandering around at the God-level, without a single protector?”

  The skinny, cruel man knew very well. The Infernal Realm had existed for a long time, and within it, there were extremely ancient, great clans!

  Those great clans were able to exist for countless years; naturally, they had power to rely on and special abilities. For the young masters of these clans to possess soul-protecting artifacts was very normal. Linley and Bebe’s performances were very much similar to that of those young masters of those clans.

  Only, why would high and noble young masters get involved with this sort of escort mission?

  “Big bro, kill him!” Nisse’s voice suddenly rang out.

  “Huh?” The skinny, cruel man was suddenly startled into wakefulness.

  However…

  A ray of black light flashed past his eyes. The skinny, cruel man didn’t even have a chance to react before the dark black light entered his body.

  The skinny, cruel man immediately collapsed.

  “Hmph!” Salomon stared coldly at the corpse on the ground.

  “Big bro.” Nisse immediately ran over, throwing herself into Salomon’s arms and beginning to cry. “Big bro, just now I, I was almost killed by him. Sob…” After having experienced the terror of a near-death experience, then being worried for Linley and Bebe, she was finally was no longer able to hold back her tears upon seeing her big brother.

  “Don’t cry.” Salomon comforted her.

  “Big bro, just now, if it wasn’t for Linley, I would be dead already.” Nisse lifted her head to look at her big brother. “Just now…” Nisse immediately explained everything.

  Salomon, hearing his sister’s explanation, immediately turned to look at Linley. Upon seeing Linley’s Dragonform, Salomon was slightly surprised. However, his experience was much greater than his little sister’s, and he immediately bowed and said thankfully, “Linley, thank you. You saved my little sister’s life. I, Salomon Boyd, will never forget this!”

  Salomon Boyd. This surname was one that Linley didn’t particularly understand the importance of.

  ‘Boyd’ was a clan name that Linley had never heard of.

  “Big bro…” Nisse stared in astonishment at her big brother, Salomon.

  Her big brother wouldn’t easily reveal his identity. Why did he do so now?

  “For the sake of Bebe, even if I had to risk death, I would rescue Nisse,” Linley said. At the same time, he returned to his divine earth clone, his body once more becoming covered with the Pulseguard Armor.

  “Boss.” Bebe a
nd Linley exchanged a glance.

  “Let’s hurry up and go,” Linley said hurriedly. “I don’t know what the situation is with Delia.” Linley was worried about Delia.

  Immediately, Linley, Bebe, Salomon, and Nisse began to traverse this sand castle.

  After having absorbed that blue drop of water, his Dragonform had quickly raised in power to yet another monstrous level. Linley had already made his decision.

  “My main body’s Dragonform has an exceedingly strong material defense, while it also has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. It has sufficient material and spiritual defense. In the future, if I face an ordinary Highgod, I am capable of killing them head on. However… the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact is damaged!

  Linley was still somewhat worried.

  “Ordinary Highgods using a soul attack aren’t able to use it to seek out a weak spot. But in Moon Lake Castle, when I was hit by the soul poison of the Godslayer Arrow, the soul poison was actually able to search for the ‘weak point’ in my damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact to attack my soul.” Linley understood.

  It was just that the opponents he had encountered thus far weren’t very powerful.

  If his enemy was a powerful Highgod, the Highgod would be able to use his soul attack to seek out the weak points, then attack the gap.

  “Thus, in the end, I can’t completely reveal this trump card.”

  Unless it was critical, Linley wouldn’t easily reveal the secret of him being able to Dragonform. After all, only a trump card that remained hidden would be effective. Besides, his ‘Pulseguard Armor’ wasn’t weak either.

  Linley and the other three walked shoulder by shoulder, but were unable to find Delia.

  “Strange. Why has the sand castle stopped transforming?” Bebe muttered.

  Linley had noticed this as well.

  “Perhaps… the person who set up the castle of sand is currently busy battling, and so he has no energy to deal with changing the castle,” Salomon guessed. Salomon’s words were correct; at this moment, the green-robed elder, ‘Mr. Wind’, was currently battling with Learmonth!