“He is dead,” Linley said directly.
“Dead?” Olivier was startled.
Linley let out a low sigh. “Roughly 20 years ago, the two of us accepted the same escort mission. We got to know each other during the mission. However… while escorting, we suffered an ambush from an expert, and Bachelor was struck by an attack and killed.”
Linley still clearly remembered the scene of how Bachelor had been smashed to death by a boulder. Now, thinking back to it, it all seemed a matter of course. That Volcano Titan was Phusro, an ultimate expert with the power of an ‘Asura’. Using some boulders to kill Gods was simplicity itself.
Olivier was silent for a moment, then let out a low sigh. “Yet another one dead!”
Linley, Delia, and Bebe’s hearts trembled. Although this phrase, ‘yet another one dead’ was a simple one, this phrase contained within it many stories, which they could easily imagine.
“The Infernal Realm is a place of survival of the fittest. Battles and slaughters are normal in the Infernal Realm,” Linley said. “From the smallest tribes and bandit groups to the most powerful Six Star Fiends, Seven Star Fiends, and even Asura-level experts, struggles continue unabated.”
“Right. Survival of the strongest.” Olivier nodded.
“Linley, the three of you seem to have done much better than me in the Infernal Realm.” Olivier laughed. He had also noticed the Fiend medallions on their chests, and knew that Delia was a Highgod Fiend. “However, what are you doing here?”
Olivier didn’t believe that Linley’s group was here to harvest amethysts.
“We helped someone on the way over, so we brought him here. At the same time, we wanted to do some sightseeing in the Amethyst Mountains. I’ve heard that the Fog Sea is extremely beautiful and is one of the great marvelous sights of the Infernal Realm.” Linley laughed.
“You came here for sightseeing?” Olivier didn’t know what he should say.
When even staying alive was a problem for a person, one would force himself to come up with ways to grow stronger. Only when one was in no danger would one think about sightseeing.
Just based on the fact that Linley had come for sightseeing, Olivier was certain that Linley’s life was a rather leisurely one these days.
“Right. The scenery here really is excellent.” Olivier could only agree.
“Huh, what’s going on?” Linley turned his head, puzzled. From afar, violent energy ripples were spreading out. Delia, Bebe, and Olivier all looked over. Even angry roars could be heard coming from there, as well as bellows.
“Kill that white-robed punk. He has a pile of amethysts!” that roar rang out from afar.
Instantly, many people nearby were drawn forward.
“Everyone, quick, kill that white-robed punk!”
“Ah, it was seized by the red-robed guy!”
From afar, angry roars continued unabated. In an instant, over a thousand people flooded over, causing utter chaos.
Even Linley’s group of four was shocked.
“A pile of amethysts?” Olivier’s expression was rather priceless. He himself had acquired a pile, after all.
“Come, let’s take a look,” Bebe said eagerly.
Linley nodded. Most of the people here harvesting amethysts were Gods or Demigods. His power was enough to not fear the likes of them.
By the time Linley’s group of four drew near, the violent battle sounds had died down, as a pursuit had begun instead! A group of people were chasing after a green-robed man who wielded a long black spear, who was frantically fleeing at high speed.
Linley’s group swept this many people flying about in front of them.
“It seems that pile of amethysts was taken by the green-robed man,” Linley said with a calm laugh.
“It really is quite insane,” Bebe muttered. “It’s just a pile of amethysts. Is it worth getting so worked up?”
Olivier said, “That pile of amethysts… each amethyst is very small, and so a small pile represents more than ten thousand amethysts. That’s worth seventy or eighty million inkstones. To Gods, this is indeed a huge fortune.”
Bebe was utterly disdainful.
With a networth of over two hundred billion, how could he care about an amount like that?
“But of course, that bit of money isn’t much in the eyes of a Highgod Fiend,” Olivier continued.
“Ah! A pile of amethysts! Him, kill him!” In another direction, yet more angry shouts could be heard, and instantly, from afar, a wild series of battles could be heard to start.
“Bang!” From yet another direction, exploding sounds rang out.
Linley frowned. “Wait. Something’s wrong here.”
Linley could clearly sense that right now, there were many different areas that were emanating with the sounds of violent energy ripples. Clearly, battles were going on everywhere. Generally speaking, one, two, or even dozens of amethysts couldn’t cause these Gods to battle like this. Only if a large pile of amethysts appeared would this happen!
Acquiring amethysts was a matter of luck.
But now, battles were occurring in many areas.
“What is going on?” Delia was puzzled and frowned. “Can it be that there are many areas with piles of amethysts flying out?”
Delia’s guess was correct!
Right at this moment, the entire Amethyst Mountains seemed to suddenly become generous. In multiple areas, large numbers of amethysts flew out, sometimes by the piles. Each pile had at least a thousand amethysts, while the largest had more than a million amethysts flying out in a clump.
Utter chaos!
So many amethysts caused the Gods to go insane.
The Amethyst Mountains covered a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Around the Amethyst Mountains, there were eighteen ancient castles scattered in different locations, each of which was the base for one of the eighteen clans. But right now, there were people hovering in the air above all eighteen castles.
“Milord, so many amethysts have charged out. The Amethyst Mountains seem to have gone wild.” In the air above a castle, a black-robed man and a violet-robed man were hovering in the air, staring at the Fog Sea. The black-robed man spoke respectfully.
The violet-robed man stared at the Fog Sea, a look of delight appearing on his face. “Haha… violet light rising to the heavens! It truly is violet light rising to the heavens! After so many years, the ‘Fog Wave’ of the Amethyst Mountains has finally once more descended, haha…” The violet-robed man was overjoyed.
Right now, looking at the Fog Sea from outside…
Deep within the Fog Sea, an eye-piercingly brilliant violet glow had risen into the skies, piercing straight through the foggy clouds. It was incomparably dazzling.
“Rumble…”
The ‘Fog Sea’ covering the entire Amethyst Mountains suddenly exploded wildly, crashing outwards in every direction like bellowing waves. In but the blink of an eye, the wild waves violently expanded by nearly ten kilometers, expanding all the way outwards until they nearly reached those eighteen castles.
As for those people who had originally been at the borders of the Fog Sea harvesting amethysts, they weren’t able to react at all before being ‘devoured’ by the Fog Sea.
64
The Strange Fog Sea
The Fog Sea had a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. It must be understood that Linley's homeland, the ‘Yulan continent’, had a circumference of only thirty thousand kilometers. It was less than a tenth of the Fog Sea in size!
The people who had been originally harvesting amethysts at the borders of the Fog Sea, all together, were over a hundred million in number. But of course, a hundred million Deities, in the vast, endless Infernal Realm, was nothing at all.
These hundred million people were all swallowed up, leaving behind only the overseeing staff of the eighteen clans at the outer perimeter, as well as the staff of those eighteen castles.
“Haha… one can harvest for a trillion
years without getting as much as we will today!” A violet-robed figure standing in the air above one of the castles was filled with eagerness, and he barked towards the people below, “Send the order. All oversight squads are to go collect amethysts. Any who take them for themselves, upon being discovered, are to be put to death!”
“Yes, milord!”
From within this castle, a flood of people flew out, numbering more than a thousand. They dispersed into the air around the Amethyst Mountains. The uniformed oversight squads also began to quickly harvest amethysts in accordance with the order. The staff members of the eighteen clans all began to wildly harvest.
Whoever harvested more and faster would earn more!
Outside the roiling fog banks, a large number of figures could be seen scurrying about, and many amethyst stones that flew out at high speed were collected into interspatial rings.
“So many amethysts?” a bald man dressed in a uniform muttered, while waving his hand, snatching a flying pile of amethysts into his interspatial ring. “Is this harvesting? This is just grabbing money. I really want to get some for myself.”
The subordinates of the eighteen clans were all astonished and envious, but they didn’t dare to take any for themselves.
Because after each harvesting, their interspatial rings would be inspected. They weren’t permitted to take so much as a single amethyst for themselves.
“How many amethysts will the clan acquire this time? I’ve already collected more than a hundred thousand amethysts by myself. Our clan alone has at least a hundred thousand people like me. Good heavens, doesn’t that mean there will be more than ten billion amethysts? That represents more than a hundred trillion inkstones!” A simple calculation made by those uniformed harvesters frightened them out of their minds.
What’s more, they had only been harvesting for a short while.
The Fog Sea continued to roil about, with large amounts of amethysts shooting out at high speed everywhere.
It was indeed a fact that the rewards the eighteen clans had reaped over a trillion years would not be as much as they would reap from the Fog Wave of today.
“All of you, hurry up!” those higher-level staff members shouted. “Hurry up and harvest them! Don’t let the other clans take them away!” As they shouted loudly, they would occasionally deign to reach out and snatch some amethysts as well. After all, sometimes a single pile of amethysts had hundreds of thousands of amethysts in them.
That represented a fortune of trillions of inkstones!
Grabbing money! This money making speed was simply too ridiculous.
No wonder the eighteen clans were so excited about this ‘Fog Wave’.
The Fog Wave brought the eighteen clans enormous wealth, but at the same time, the Fog Wave swept those pitiable Gods and Demigods all into the depths as well. Because of the sudden expansion by nearly ten kilometers, the people who had been within the Fog Sea’s borders were all now nearly ten kilometers within it.
A hundred meters was the danger line. Ten kilometers?
None of them would be able to return!
Linley, Delia, Bebe, and Olivier had been chatting and laughing about going to a restaurant to eat. But who would have expected that the Fog Sea would suddenly expand?
It must be understood that normally, the Fog Sea constantly roiled about, and Linley’s group was within the borders of the Fog Sea. They weren’t able to notice that the Fog Sea had expanded. In addition, the actual expansion of the Fog Sea was simply too fast. In but an instant, Linley’s group of four entered the danger zone!
They didn’t actively go in, but the Fog Sea had expanded. Ten kilometers deep into the Fog Sea?
At a hundred meters distance, their heads would go dizzy.
Ten kilometers?
“Whoooooosh.” That low, rumbling wind constantly rang out, and one attack after another hammered against their souls. Most Gods, upon falling into this environment, would immediately have their minds turn chaotic, but as Linley has a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, he was able to remain clear-minded.
Linley had trained for 20 more years after parting with the Volcano Titan, Phusro.
During these 20 years, Linley had refined a large amount of amethysts and further strengthened his soul, while at the same time he had worked diligently to repair the flaw in the soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. By now, the strength of the ‘patch’ over the flaw was excellent.
“What’s going on?” Linley fought to stay clear-minded.
“Boss, my head feels miserable.” Bebe frantically shook his head. “However, I can still maintain my awareness.” Bebe suddenly closed his eyes, then opened them again, trying to keep himself awake.
Linley turned and saw that although Bebe had been able to maintain his clear-mindedness, Delia and Olivier…
Although Delia had reached the Highgod level, Delia didn’t have a soul-protecting divine artifact, and what’s more, she had fused with a divine spark to become a Deity. Although she had absorbed some Golden Soul-Pearls, under the attack of the strange sound of the wind, she was beginning to turn woozy.
“Lin… Linley… I… my head hurts…” Delia forced out a few words from her lips.
Linley immediately grabbed Delia by the hand. He understood what Delia was going through. In this sort of environment, staying clear-minded was already very hard, much less using divine sense to speak. Delia was only just barely able to say a few words. Even her eyes were occasionally clear, occasionally lost.
“Boss, Olivier has lost consciousness.” Bebe grabbed Olivier by the hand, afraid that Olivier would drift away from their position.
“Olivier isn’t able to stay conscious?” Linley was secretly shocked. Olivier had a mutated soul, and yet even he wasn’t able to stay awake?
Linley stared at the surroundings. The visibility within the Fog Sea was very low, and Linley’s group was only able to just barely see past a hundred meters. Linley forcibly suppressed his dizziness as he looked around himself, but no matter where he looked, all he saw was white fog.”
“Boss, there’s white fog everywhere. We can’t see the outside,” Bebe called out in alarm.
Linley couldn’t help but think back to what that person had said when they had arrived: “If you go so deep in as to be unable to see the outside world, you won’t be able to leave!”
“Boss, will we be unable to leave?” Bebe also suppressed his dizziness as he spoke. Bebe had a soul-protecting divine artifact. Although its level wasn’t as high as Linley’s, at least Bebe’s soul-protecting divine artifact was an undamaged one.
“Unable to leave?”
Linley’s face suddenly changed. “Bebe, have you realized that something’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Bebe didn’t understand.
“Haven’t you noticed that even if we don’t use our divine power to control our bodies, we still won’t land?” Linley said. Just now, Olivier had been unable to stay conscious, and yet he was still floating. This was because this area had no gravity at all.
“There really is no gravity,” Bebe immediately realized.
Linley ground his teeth, forcing himself to ignore the pain and sense the strength of the wind around him. “All I can feel is that there are surges of wind gently pushing us around, constantly drawing us in.” Linley pointed towards their front. “If we don’t resist, we will probably enter the dangerous area.”
“Therefore, we need to move towards the opposite direction,” Linley said.
“Boss, the direction of the wind just changed,” Bebe suddenly called out in alarm.
Indeed…
The direction of the wind was chaotic and disordered. Sometimes it would be here, other times it would push there. This immediately caused Linley and Bebe to feel stupefied.
“Swish!” Suddenly, a violet light flashed over.
“Amethysts.” Bebe reached out, storing the violet light into his interspatial ring. “Boss, this pile of amethysts, although not large, has at least several tho
usand within it.”
Linley didn’t care about amethysts. He was pondering how to leave!
Linley’s face suddenly turned ashen. “No one who has entered the Fog Sea has ever been able to leave! If one really was able to so easily exit the depths of the Fog Sea, there probably would have been an entire pile of Highgods harvesting amethysts within it, but even those eighteen clans just quietly wait outside. Clearly, this is a place where you can enter but cannot leave!” Linley immediately deduced this fact.
But this deduction caused Linley to feel miserable, because the strange wind sounds were still causing Linley’s head to feel woozy and extremely painful.
“Bebe, forget about everything else. Let’s charge straight in front.” Linley ground his teeth.
At this time, nothing else mattered.
“Alright.” Bebe nodded.
Immediately, Linley held Delia’s hand while Bebe pulled Olivier along. The two headed straight forward. The white fog was hazy… and there was no gravity. Linley’s group wasn’t even able to determine where ‘up’ and ‘down’ was, much less the four cardinal directions. They could only blindly charge forward.
“Amethysts!” From afar, some more amethysts flew out. When they drew near Linley, Linley waved his hand and drew in the amethysts, immediately storing ten amethysts into the Coiling Dragon ring while the rest were stored into his interspatial ring.
The Coiling Dragon ring instantly refined those ten amethysts.
“Hey?” Linley’s face revealed a hint of delight. “I didn’t expect that while absorbing soul essences, the wooziness would weaken!”
However, after flying for a while, the ‘whoooshing’ wind came to an end.
“We finally flew out of that strange area.” Linley and Bebe both had small smiles on their faces, while at this moment, Delia and Olivier woke up as well.
“Linley, what happened?” Delia asked. “Just now, even thinking was difficult. Um, the surrounding area is all white fog. I can’t see the outside!” Delia was shocked as well.
The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 50
