“That’s all I need to hear.” Reisgem instantly began to grin. “I can’t be bothered to care about whether or not you want to be a Sovereign’s Emissary. All that matters is that in the future, if we run into those bastards, I’ll finally have a method for dealing with them. Hmph. Sovereigns won’t lower themselves to intervene, but Linley, although you are powerful, you are still just a Deity. It won’t be too inappropriate for you to deal with them.”
Although Reisgem had the backing of the Redbud Sovereign, the Redbud Sovereign allowed Reisgem to suffer his own setbacks without intervening. Reisgem felt quite stifled by this, but today, he, Reisgem, finally had a Paragon to call friend.
“Hmph. Hmph!” When Reisgem thought about how, in the future, he would have Linley’s assistance, and how he would have such a powerful backer, he couldn’t help but laugh delightedly.
“Reisgem, if you encounter any enemies, don’t always be in a hurry to have my Boss intervene. It’s enough for me to intervene against ordinary figures,” Bebe said, and then tossed a divine spark into his mouth.
“We’re bros. No need to stand on courtesy.” Reisgem slapped his arm around Bebe and laughed loudly.
Bluefire smiled as he watched this, but he suddenly thought of something. He said seriously, “Everyone, no matter what, don’t reveal the fact that Linley is a Soul Mutate! A four-power Soul Mutate has never before existed. For now, it’s best to keep this a secret.” Hearing this, Linley nodded in approval as well.
“We know to keep this a secret. Don’t worry.” Reisgem nodded and said, “As for Reihom, don’t worry about him. He barely talks anyways.”
The nearby Reihom revealed a rare hint of a smile.
“Yo, Boss.” Bebe frowned. “But in the future, if you fight others and reveal your power…”
“Then we’ll just publicly say… that Linley has become a Paragon as well.” Bluefire laughed. “Although the reputation of Paragons is formidable, there’s still a number of Paragons in the countless planes of the universe. Linley adding to their number won’t cause too tremendous a tumult in the world.”
Linley nodded. “Then I will listen to your advice, Mr. Leylin. Actually, as I see it, there’s no need to explain. If others see me reveal my power, they will only describe me as a ‘suspected Paragon’. As long as we don’t mention the fact that my soul mutated, and as long as I don’t use fused divine power, it won’t be revealed.”
Bluefire laughed as he looked at Linley. “Linley, normally, it is enough for you to use standard Highgod power. In a critical moment, you can use a drop of Sovereign’s Might. Your soul is so powerful that you can completely control Sovereign’s Might without wasting it at all. You can use just a portion of a single drop of Sovereign’s Might in a battle, and then, in the next battle a few centuries later, use the rest.”
This was the benefit to Paragons using Sovereign’s Might.
Normal commanders, when using Sovereign’s Might, would constantly emanate Sovereign power and constantly waste it. But Paragons didn’t waste any. If they didn’t want to use it, they would store the Sovereign’s Might back into their body, to be used during the next great battle.
“That’s for the best.” Linley was moved.
Instantly, a drop of Destruction-type Sovereign’s Might swelled within Linley’s body. However, the constrictive power of Linley’s will was now too great, and the Destruction-type Sovereign power coalesced within Linley’s soul quite obediently.
“In the past, when I used Sovereign power, I felt as though I was carrying a mountain, unable to wield it as I pleased. But now, it feels so light and easily lifted.” Linley remembered how Beirut had been able to perfectly control Sovereign power to rescue Delia that year.
“Linley, it seems as though your Will is even stronger than that of a Paragon’s,” Bluefire suddenly said.
“Eh?” Linley was stunned.
“Even more powerful?” The nearby Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom all looked towards Bluefire. Bebe said, “Mr. Leylin, when my Boss fought against you, you were evenly matched.”
“Actually, I was at a disadvantage,” Linley said with a laugh. “Mr. Leylin’s attacks are very powerful. Fortunately, that technique of mine contains a spatial compression aspect. After infusing it with my Will, the power of that compression is far greater than that of ordinary spatial compression. Mr. Leylin was affected by that compression, which is why we were on par. In addition, Mr. Leylin didn’t use fire-type Sovereign power, but Destruction-type Sovereign power, and so his full power wasn’t unleashed.”
Reisgem, Bebe, and Reihom were rather surprised.
However, during the battle, Bluefire’s power was either contained within his body or focused on his fist, without any of it leaking out. From the outside, no one could tell what sort of Sovereign power he was using. But Linley was fighting against him; naturally, he knew.
Bluefire laughed. “You didn’t use the earth-type Sovereign power you specialize in either. How could I take advantage of you like that?”
The conditions were similar; the two were both using types of Sovereign power they weren’t proficient in.
“Given this sort of situation, you were still able to fight with me to a standstill. I was very surprised. Because… I have already fused six types of profound mysteries. You have only fused four,” Bluefire said. “Thus, I believe that your Will should be even stronger than the Will of a Paragon.”
A deeper level of understanding into the profound mysteries could raise one’s power.
But Linley and Bluefire fought to a standstill. Although this had to do with the spatial compression, in the end, one had fused four while the other had fused six. The difference was very great.
“How can you tell if one’s Will is weak or strong?” Linley said.
“Simple.” Bluefire laughed. “Linley, control your Sovereign power and transform it into divine sense. See how far it extends to.”
The limits to which one could use Sovereign power to investigate was a test of the strength of one’s soul. In addition, once it was infused with one’s Will, the scope would increase greatly!
“Ordinary Paragons, when emanating Sovereign power on the Planar Battlefield, can reach to a distance of eight thousand kilometers.” Bluefire continued, “Linley, don’t use your spiritual energy; just rely on Sovereign power to form a divine sense. See how far you can stretch.”
Eight thousand kilometers! This number caused Reisgem and the others to be frightened.
Ordinary commanders, who didn’t use Sovereign power and just their own divine sense, were only able to reach to a hundred meters in the Planar Battlefield. If they used Sovereign power, they would be able to reach perhaps a hundred kilometers. But Paragons were able to reach out to eight thousand kilometers. It was nearly a hundredfold difference!
“I will give it a try.” Linley, with a thought, caused the formless, colorless Sovereign power to spread out as divine sense.
Moments later, he reached his limit, unable to extend any further.
“36,000 kilometers!” Linley felt stunned. “My Will is actually far greater than that of a Paragon.” No wonder earlier, he was able to fight Bluefire to a standstill. His Will far surpassed that of his opponent. Given that he also had the spatial compression to help out, he was able to make up for the difference in profound mysteries.
With a thought, Linley retracted his Sovereign power, and then Linley released his own spiritual energy! Linley had the feeling that after his soul mutation, his soul had become very powerful. Just by looking at the speed at which it repaired his soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, one could understand how great it was. How far could he stretch, just by relying on his own spiritual energy?
It stretched outwards…
A thousand kilometers. Ten thousand kilometers. Thirty thousand kilometers. Sixty thousand kilometers. A hundred thousand kilometers.
Linley himself was shocked. After his soul mutation, he had yet to truly experience the true power of his spiritual
energy, used at full strength.
“Magnus. Hemmers. Oman…” Linley clearly discovered every single familiar figure, but these people didn’t notice Linley’s investigations at all. In the end, Linley’s spiritual energy finally reached a limit.
“512,000 kilometers!” Linley was terrified by this astronomical figure.
“My spiritual energy is even more powerful by itself than when using Sovereign power? That much more powerful?” Linley was stunned, but then he understood.
His divine power, with three types fused, was already close to that of Sovereign power. Once his divine fire power reached the Highgod level, he would fuse four types of divine power, and his divine power strength would vastly surpass that of him using Sovereign’s Might!
But in terms of the soul, the metamorphosis was already complete. There was nothing to ‘fuse’.
A Soul Mutate with four clones. This made it so that Linley’s own spiritual energy was more than ten times stronger than using Sovereign power.
“I imagine that a person with three clones who underwent a soul mutation would have spiritual energy and Will comparable to that of using Sovereign power!” This was Linley’s guess. He himself had four clones and underwent a soul mutation, making his spiritual energy even more terrifying.
“By the looks of it, my supreme technique should no longer be a material attack; it should be a spiritual attack.” Linley now understood that given his terrifyingly strong spiritual energy, even if his understanding as far as the profound mysteries went was lacking, when infused with his Will, the power would still be astonishing. “No… my, my innate divine ability!”
Linley suddenly thought of his innate divine ability. His innate divine ability was connected to his spiritual energy and that innate azure light.
“When my innate divine ability is infused with my spiritual energy and my Will, how strong will it be?” Linley was rather eager.
At the door to the cave estate.
“Linley, no need to send me off,” Bluefire said with a calm laugh.
Linley and the other four could only watch as Bluefire walked away leisurely. Given Linley’s current level, Bluefire didn’t feel any more pressure at all. If Linley was to meet with a problem he couldn’t resolve, Bluefire wouldn’t be able to assist either.
“Let’s go back in,” Linley said, then returned with Bebe into the cavern estate.
When Bluefire had inquired as to the strength of Linley’s Will, Linley admitted that his Will was indeed somewhat stronger than that of a Paragon’s. However, as no one asked him how strong his spiritual energy was, Linley didn’t discuss it.
Within the stone room. Linley was seated meditatively atop a stone bed.
“My Will, compared to a Sovereign’s, is still far weaker.” Linley sighed to himself. The Will of a Sovereign was very terrifying. It could effortless stretch across the entire Planar Battlefield. In fact, if a Sovereign truly desired to do so, a Sovereign could stretch his will across the entirety of the Infernal Realm or Netherworld, much less a Planar Battlefield.
One could imagine how great this Will was.
Once a Sovereign came face-to-face with a Paragon, the Paragon wouldn’t be able to resist at all.
“The will of a Sovereign is too terrifying.” Linley let out a sigh. “They far surpass Paragons. Although at a distance, they might not be able to kill a Paragon with a thought, in close quarters, Paragons aren’t able to fight back at all. My spiritual energy might be a bit stronger, but my Will is far from being a match for a Sovereign’s. They are able to spread it across the entirety of the Netherworld or Infernal Realm. What sort of Will is this?”
Linley felt terrified just thinking about it.
“No wonder. Sovereigns and Deities are on completely different levels. This is a qualitative difference.” Linley sighed to himself.
One was like heaven while the other was like earth. Paragons or Soul Mutates; they were all ‘Deities’. Deities weren’t able to overcome Sovereigns. This was the ‘gulf’ between these two levels.
“Forget about the Sovereigns. As long as I don’t kill a Sovereign’s son, I’m fine. Even if I beat a Sovereign’s son or daughter senseless, the Sovereign won’t intervene.” Linley no longer thought about it.
THE YULAN PLANE. The Forest of Darkness. The metallic castle.
“Haha…” Beirut began to laugh loudly. “He actually succeeded? Utterly unimaginable. Four divine clones, and yet he successfully mutated his soul. I didn’t even dare imagine it. But he succeeded!”
By his side, Bluefire replied with a laugh. “Right. He succeeded.”
“Originally, when I talked about changing our plans, I was just speaking casually. I didn’t dare truly imagine it, because it wasn’t too realistic. But who would have imagined… now, it seems, a miracle is very likely about to be born from our hands!” The formerly ever-somber Beirut was now so excited that his eyes were shining.
“As I see it, let’s not be in a rush to tell Linley just yet,” Bluefire advised. “Right now, Linley needs to focus on fusing the different profound mysteries of different Laws.”
Fusing mysteries from the same Law would result in an increase in power, but it generally wouldn’t be too extravagant, just a tenfold increase or so.
But the fusing of profound mysteries of different Laws would result in an increase in power that was ridiculous; at least a hundredfold! For example, that ‘Learmonth’ which Linley encountered so many years ago had only fused two types of profound mysteries from different Laws, but was able to kill the master of Phusro, that ‘Elquin’.
Given that Linley trained in four types of Laws, if he was able to fuse one profound mystery in each of the four Laws into a whole, then the effect would vastly surpass an ordinary six-way fusion!
“His power… the stronger he grows, the better.” Beirut’s smile was utterly incandescent.
86
DISAPPEARING IN A BLINK OF AN EYE
The Planar Battlefield. Within a stone room in the cave estate. Linley was seated quietly in the meditative position.
Linley was indeed focusing on his training, desiring to fuse the mysteries of four Laws. His original body and his three major clones were all focused on this; as for his divine fire clone, it remained focused on the Laws of Fire.
Suddenly, Linley opened his eyes.
“How peculiar.” Linley had a hint of a smile on his face, but he didn’t understand. “The souls of my original body and three divine clones have all undergone a soul mutation, so why is it that the souls of my clones aren’t as strong as that of my original body? In addition, as far as the power of my Will goes, the Will of the original body is still the strongest.”
The stronger one’s soul was, the faster one gained insights and trained as well.
After undergoing a soul mutation, one could sense all four elements, and so Linley had his original body and his three divine clone souls focus on all four elements, but clearly, his original body’s speed far surpassed that of the other three clones.
“They underwent the same soul mutation, so why is there a difference?” Linley thought about it but didn’t understand. Shaking his head, he shut his eyes, once more focusing on his training.
What Linley didn’t know was that the reason a soul mutation occurred was that after one suffered a major wound and was sent into a coma, during that period of unconsciousness, the weak soul would rely on absorbing all sorts of nearby elemental essences. When Linley’s original body and three divine clones were in the coma, the three comas were only able to sense the nearby elemental essences of their respective elements, while the original body was simultaneously absorbing all four types of elemental essences.
Thus, the soul of the original body was the first to begin to mutate.
Because the original body’s soul began to mutate, and because it was linked to the other souls of the four divine clones, the original body’s soul caused the other three souls to slowly mutate as well. But the original body was still the
primary mover; naturally, it was the strongest after the mutation! The other three souls of the other divine clones were a bit weaker.
It was all one principle.
For example, Sovereigns. The Will of a Sovereign is exceedingly powerful, but Sovereigns generally had divine clones as well. The divine clones of Sovereigns, thanks to the original body, also contained Will, but the Will of the divine clones of Sovereigns was far, far weaker than the Will of the original body of the Sovereign. This was a primary-secondary issue.
The primary body for a Sovereign was their clone which became a Sovereign, with the other ones being secondary.
As for Linley, his original body was the primary body, while the other ones were secondary.
There were nearly three hundred years left before the final battle. Linley’s group of four lived a leisurely life, either training or congregating and chatting.
A century was spent in this leisurely training.
LINLEY and the others were seated together. Reisgem asked eagerly, “Linley, judging from that happy smile on your face, you must have made some breakthroughs in fusing different Laws, right?”
“I’m a long ways off.” Linley laughed calmly.
“Linley is very modest,” a low sound rumbled out. The speaker was the nearby Reihom.
“He’s begun to learn to hide his strength. Only someone who is too powerful will choose to hide his strength. Hmph. For weaker people like us, we’d prefer to frighten others. A four-clone Soul Mutate. Whew, whew. I am aware that the fusing of different Laws will result in a huge increase in power. Fusing two profound mysteries from two different Laws is comparable to fusing three profound mysteries of the same Law. Fusing three profound mysteries from three different laws is comparable to fusing five profound mysteries of the same Law. Fusing four profound mysteries from four different Laws… is equivalent to fusing seven profound mysteries of the same Law. This is a level more powerful than even Paragons!” Reisgem said with a sigh.
The Planar Wars: Book 7 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 69
