Lord of the Mists: Book 8 of the Coiling Dragon Saga

by Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi

  “Right. This news is definitely valuable.”

  “This news even mentions Lord Linley. As I see it, Molde intended to harm Lord Linley.” These soldiers didn’t believe this news to be real.

  Soon, those soldiers who had made a trip for nothing and who would never receive Molde’s promised reward came to a decision. They would sell off this astonishing information to the Fiend Castles. The Fiend Castles had many different departments; escort, assassination, treasure-hunting… and of course, they also bought intelligence reports and information.

  After the Fiend Castles purchased this information, those soldiers who no longer feared Molde’s reprisals also informed the Fiend Castles that it was Molde who had instructed them to deliver this news to the various Lord Prefects and Sovereign’s Emissaries.

  After acquiring this information, the Fiend Castles would naturally sell it off at a high price to the interested experts. Naturally, this news was quickly made known to the other experts of the Infernal Realm.

  The vast majority of experts believed that Molde was trying to harm Linley.

  But there were a few who believed it, and so they filled the lands in search of the three talismans, so as to be able to offer them to the Sovereigns and thus be rewarded.

  Of course, this news also quickly made its way to the ears of the Sovereigns as well. But after the previous conference, the Sovereigns no longer paid much heed to this. And yet, at the same time… the Sovereigns were rather irritated. How could this sort of information be spread all over the place in such a manner? The Sovereigns instantly gave the order for the Fiend Castles to no longer sell this information.

  And yet…

  Since this information had already been publicized, the order of the Sovereigns came too late to do any good.

  This didn’t have any impact on Linley. Linley’s life was still as tranquil and peaceful as ever. However, the many descendants Linley had brought over from the Yulan Plane, after having spent centuries in the Infernal Realm, were beginning to grow restless.

  The Infernal Realm had too many experts.

  Most of the descendants of the Baruch clan were merely Saints. After the Ancestral Baptism, they became Demigods. In the Infernal Realm, the only thing they could do was be abused.

  By relying on the power of the Four Divine Beasts clan, the descendants of the Baruch clan from the Yulan continent were able to wander around a few of the cities of the Infernal Realm. However, they found life to be boring, and many still decided to return to the Yulan continent. Linley didn’t stop them, and by relying on the Sovereign’s insignia, he was able to send a group of them back.

  In the blink of an eye, a thousand years had passed since Mosi had delivered him that information.

  A thousand years, to Deities, wasn’t much.

  During these thousand years, Linley had advanced quite a bit in his four Laws. He had managed to begin fusing the Throbbing Pulse of the World and the ‘Dimensional Attack’ profound mysteries of the Laws of the Wind. In fact, he was halfway through fusing them. He had also begun to fuse the ‘Dimensional Attack’ mystery and the ‘Circular Softness’ mystery of the water. Only, he had yet to completely master either of these two fusions.

  As for fire…

  His training speed in fire truly was slow, and the more he trained, the slower it went. He had spent a thousand years after mastering the first five profound mysteries of the Laws of Fire, and had spent that entire time training in the Profound Mysteries of Explosion, and yet still hadn’t mastered it.

  The Skyrite Mountains. Linley’s estate.

  Beneath a thick, gnarled, twisted willow tree that was within a courtyard. This green willow tree had been living for more than eight hundred years, and its myriad branches drooped down and danced about, appearing so beautiful.

  “Yale, although you became a Deity through fusing with a divine spark, don’t give up. Perhaps someone who fused with a divine spark also has a chance of fusing profound mysteries. Look at me. I don’t have any confidence in my ability to fuse profound mysteries, and yet… I, Bebe, still ended up fusing two of them, right? Haha.” Bebe’s loud laughter could be heard coming from below the willow tree.

  Beneath the willow tree, there was a black wooden table, with three people around it. These three were Bebe, Yale, and Wharton.

  “I don’t have such extravagant hopes.” Yale chortled. “Look at me. I’m a Highgod now. Although I reached this level through fusing with divine sparks, the difference between where I am at now and where I was at back at the Ernst Institute is as great as the difference between the heavens and the earth. What’s more, I’ve already reformed the Dawson Conglomerate, and we have a huge pile of descendants. I’m satisfied. Haha, the only thing left for me now is to enjoy life. I’ll occasionally go to some material planes and undergo a few simple adventures. I’m just a Highgod who fused with divine sparks, but in the material planes, I have nothing to fear. And… I even have the ‘Sovereign’s Might’ which Third Bro gave me.

  After becoming a Deity, he had gone back to the Yulan continent and lived there for over two centuries.

  During the course of those two centuries, Yale had sired nineteen sons and daughters. By relying on the power of the Baruch Empire, he had effortlessly reconstructed the Dawson Conglomerate. His nineteen sons and daughters had carried on his work, and the Dawson Conglomerate once more flourished. And then, bored, Yale had taken his third wife with him and returned to the Infernal Realm.

  But of course, that time, Yale had been quite unlucky; while holding the Sovereign’s medallion, he had to go from the Yulan continent to the Infernal realm, then back, eight times in a row before arriving at the Bloodridge Continent.

  Teleportation was free for holders of the Sovereign’s medallion, after all.

  “Yale, Bebe… I wonder how long it will be before I, too, will go to some other material planes for a stroll,” Wharton laughed while musing to himself.

  Beirut had given Linley a Sovereign’s medallion, but hadn’t taken it back. Since Linley didn’t use it, he let Bebe and Whaton often borrow it.

  “Why the rush? Next time, we’ll let the Boss take us all together,” Bebe said.

  Just as they were chatting…

  “Rumble…” A surge of rippling power, born from the natural Laws, descended. The location was somewhere within Linley’s estate.

  Bebe, Wharton, and Yale all immediately rose to their feet.

  “That’s coming from the place where Third Bro is training…” Yale said hurriedly.

  “Haha, the Boss made a breakthrough. The Boss’ divine fire clone has finally reached mastery as well,” Bebe called out in celebration.

  It was exactly as Bebe had said. Linley’s divine fire clone had, indeed, made a breakthrough.

  Red light was currently bathing the entire room.

  The long, brown-haired Linley was currently seated in the meditative position, but next to him floated a Linley with long, fiery red hair. A black gemstone, covered with fiery red light, was floating above this Linley’s head. It was his divine fire spark. Dense amounts of fire-type elemental essences swirled around the divine spark, carrying within them the Laws of the natural world.

  Moments later…

  “Finally. Success.” Linley, seated in the meditative position, opened his eyes. His divine fire clone entered his body.

  “My divine fire clone really was far slower than the other clones in training. Fortunately, since my divine fire clone was able to share energy from my other four souls, it slowly transformed as well, making my training speed much faster. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have broken through and mastered a sixth profound mystery this quickly.” Linley rose to his feet, his face wreathed in smiles. “By using three types of divine power, my strength is comparable to when I use Sovereign power. Then with four types…?”

  Linley was finally able to begin testing out the feeling of using four fused types of divine power.

  His heart was filled with eagerness.
His face all smiles, Linley fused his power… and upon doing so, his face froze.

  “Crackle…” A bizarre sound rang out from Linley’s body, and all the muscles of his body turned taut.

  His azure-golden draconic scales suddenly emerged, and spikes appeared on his forehead and his spine. That metallic, whip-like draconic tail trembled and emerged as well, and a terrifying energy roiled about Linley’s entire body.

  “This… this is utterly unbelievable.” Linley’s eyes were filled with astonishment.

  21

  FOUR DIVINE POWERS FUSE

  Savage pain wracked Linley’s entire body. It felt as though countless little bugs were gnawing away at him. That bone-deep pain was so great that even someone like Linley wasn’t able to endure it expressionlessly. All he could do was to grit his teeth and struggle to endure it. At the same time, Linley’s divine sense filled each part of his body.

  Pure darkness, which didn’t contain a hint of anything else.

  A dark flood swirled about throughout Linley’s body. There was no rhythm or order to it. The large tide of black energy filled every single muscle, every single blood vessel, every single bone. Those specks of black energy seemed to have found their ‘home’ as they sank into his bones, muscles, and organs, causing every single part of Linley’s body to undergo a heaven-shaking transformation.

  “Rumble…”

  All of his bones were trembling to the point of emitting clattering sounds.

  “The fusion of four types of profound power actually results in this pure black color. This black divine power is actually this much more powerful than Sovereign power!” Linley hadn’t expected this either.

  Prior to this, for Linley, using the fusion of three types of divine power had been comparable to using Sovereign power. But for example, although it was comparable to when Linley used Destruction-type Sovereign power, it was still significantly weaker than when Linley used earth-type Sovereign power.

  As Linley saw it, the four-way fusion would result in a tenfold increase in power, making it so that it would only be a few times stronger than when he used earth-type Sovereign power.

  But now that he had actually fused four types of divine power, a remarkable, unique transformation had occurred. Amazingly, it had transformed into this pure black color, and Linley could clearly sense how powerful this black energy was.

  Despite the passage of countless years, no person had ever possessed four divine bodies and still successfully undergone a soul mutation!

  Linley had succeeded, and thus he was able to fuse four types of divine power.

  Earth, fire, water, wind; the fusion of these four types of divine power gave birth to this ‘black divine power’. And it was so powerful as to make Linley tremble.

  Suddenly…

  The azure-golden scales covering Linley’s body began to be covered with fine lines of black energy. Even his spikes were being covered. The black lines criss-crossed his draconic scales, his spikes, his draconic tail, and even dug deep into his body. Anyone looking at Linley would feel as though Linley’s entire body was covered with a large amount of black runes.

  “Rumble…”

  The draconic scales on Linley’s body were shuddering. Because the frequency of the shuddering was very high, they emitted a rumbling sound, causing even spatial ripples to occur.

  “How could this black divine power have such a bizarre effect?” Although his entire body was wracked with pain, Linley, having trained to the peak of power, was able to maintain complete clarity of thought. He could clearly sense that every part of his entire body was transforming. His muscles were strengthening at an astonishing rate, and his bones were rising in hardness repeatedly.

  This terrifying rate of advancement caused even Linley to be terrified.

  “According to legend, the ancestor of my Azure Dragon clan, the ‘Azure Dragon’, was able to use Sovereign power to strengthen his body, to the point where it was comparable to a Sovereign artifact. Most likely, this was because water-type Sovereign power and his own water-type divine beast body was a perfect match. As for the fusion of these four types of divine power, they too are strengthening my body. This sort of strengthening feels similar to when one uses divine power to nurture a divine artifact.”

  Linley knew a few simple ways by which one could strengthen one’s body.

  The fundamental underpinning of strengthening one’s body was simply to allow one’s body to constantly absorb energy and constantly grow strong. But although this was easy to describe, the amount of energy needed was tremendous. How could one completely absorb it? This was difficult. This was partially related to innate abilities; for example, divine beasts like Godeater Rats and Azure Dragons all had their own ways to strengthen their bodies.

  Clearly, this fusion of four types of divine power also had the special effect of strengthening one’s body.

  When cultivating a divine artifact, what one actually did was to constantly absorb divine power into the artifact, slowly making it harder and sharper. At the same time, one would infuse it with some spiritual energy, so as to slowly give it sentience.

  “Eh?” Linley sent his divine sense into his body. He discovered that beneath his skin, a special change was beginning to occur. The same was true for his draconic scales.

  “It seems as though this strengthening process should take a fairly long period of time.”

  Linley understood that actually, this strengthening process could be completely guided by the strength of his spiritual energy. If, however, he allowed the fused divine power to strengthen his body as it pleased… what would the results be?

  “Father made his breakthrough. Why hasn’t he emerged yet?” Taylor stared at the distant end of the corridor.

  Generally speaking, after making a breakthrough, Linley would emerge from his study and walk into the wide, grassy expanse outside. If he were to do so, he would have to pass through this corridor. At this moment, aside from Taylor, others such as Bebe, Reynolds, and Yale were also paying attention to this corridor. Even Delia, along with her daughter ‘Sasha’, was staring at the corridor while chatting.

  “Mother, can it be that Father’s breakthrough was not in relation to his divine fire clone?” Sasha said softly.

  “It should be his fire clone. Your father’s other three divine clones reached the Highgod level long ago.” Delia frowned as well. “But after making a breakthrough, he should come out.”

  Right at this moment…

  “Delia,” a clear voice echoed in Delia’s mind.

  “Linley, how are you doing?” Delia, surprised and delighted, conversed with him through divine sense.

  “I have indeed made a breakthrough, but right now, I am in the process of gaining some insights into strengthening my body and am currently analyzing them. Thus… for now, I won’t come out. Don’t worry about it. As to this breakthrough, it can last anywhere from one year to a few decades, or even a century.” Linley was worried that his friends and family would be concerned, and so sent a message out through divine sense.

  “Alright. Focus on your training.” Delia was actually quite happy. After all, Linley hadn’t made many improvements in the past thousand years.

  Delia laughed as she looked at everyone present. “Enough, everyone. All of you, hurry up and take care of your own affairs. Linley is still training.”

  “He’s still in the midst of training?” Bebe mumbled.

  “I was hoping that Third Bro would come out and go on a stroll with us.” Yale stretched lazily, then sat back down, resting his legs atop the table and speaking in a casual manner.

  “Do you think Third Bro is as lazy and bored as you?” Reynolds mocked.

  But enough of them for now. Linley, in his room, was completely absorbed in the process of his entire body being strengthened. In addition, through his powerful spiritual energy, he was able to guide the process and direction of this strengthening. On the very first day, Linley’s body strengthened to a ridiculous amount, but a
s time went on, the strengthening speed slowed as well.

  Still, although it slowed, that was just in comparison to the first day. In reality, each day, Linley’s body was growing stronger. If others knew how much his body was strengthening by, most likely they would stare with blank gazes.

  Nearly ten years silently, soundless passed. During this period of time, Linley’s focus never wavered. He continued to focus on guiding and controlling the strengthening process, and as he did, he discovered better ways for strengthening himself. Slowly, as he tested more methods, he managed to develop a body-strengthening method that was suitable for fused divine power and suited for his body.

  In the mortal world, there were all sorts of battle-qi manuals.

  But in the world of Deities, Deities only focused on analyzing the fundamental underpinnings; the Elemental Laws and the Natural Edicts. Those so-called ‘manuals’, to them, were nothing more than jokes. For example, Linley could come up with any sort of battle-qi manual he wanted!

  Everyone understood this!

  Even when it came to strengthening the body, there was no such thing as a secret manual. There were only techniques that were suited to one’s self. Only personalized, customized techniques were the best. Different bodies and lineages, different types of energy… they all had matching, effective training methods.

  The method that was effective for the Azure Dragon wouldn’t necessarily be effective for Linley. After all, the energy within Linley’s body was this ‘black divine power’, formed from four different types of fused divine power, which had never before been seen since the creation of the universe.

  “I’ve more or less mastered this process.”

  Linley stood up.

  At this moment in time, Linley’s body was covered with a layer of inky green scales. Actually, given the strengthening process of the black divine power, Linley’s draconic scales should be black in color. However, Linley’s original draconic scales were azure-golden, and so, after this transformation, they had become this inky green color. Linley’s draconic scales had become even denser and even more tightly clustered together.