Bebe had reached the Saint level already.
Currently, however, Bebe was totally suppressing his aura. If a Saint-level combatant were to suppress their aura, unless the opponents were far stronger, they wouldn’t be able to sense the exact power.
“Bebe is a peak-stage magical beast of the ninth rank.” Linley laughed.
On Linley’s shoulders, Bebe flashed his fangs disdainfully towards McKenzie. As Linley planned it, Bebe having reached the Saint-rank was one of his most valuable hidden trump cards.
Bebe was already extremely terrifying before reaching the Saint-rank. Now that he had reached the Saint-rank, if Linley didn’t use the Profound Truths of the Earth, he would be absolutely ravaged by Bebe in their sparring matches.
But amongst Saint-level experts, how many possessed such a strange attack as Linley’s Profound Truths of the Earth? Generally, Saint-level experts weren’t a match for Bebe at all.
“A black Shadowmouse that is a peak-stage magical beast of the ninth rank?” McKenzie was still very surprised.
“Enough about that. McKenzie, in a few days, I plan to head off to the imperial capital. What do you think would be a good time for us to hold our sparring match?” Linley asked.
“Leaving so soon?” McKenzie was a bit disappointed. “I was hoping to celebrate with you for quite a while, brother Linley. That way, when we sparred together, we would learn more as well. But since you have business to attend to in the imperial capital, then… how about this? In three days, let’s have our sparring match in that small desolate mountain outside the city.”
“Works for me.” Linley nodded in agreement.
“Come, come take a look at my training yard.” McKenzie said warmly, and Linley followed McKenzie over to take a look.
While Linley was enjoying the warm hospitality of McKenzie, Wharton and Nina had left the imperial capital and were headed for the War God’s College.
The War God’s College was built on top of a tall mountain. The mountain was thus named, War God Mountain.
“It has already been over two hundred years since the last time the War God accepted a personal disciple. A few years ago, the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier, refused the War God’s invitation. I didn’t expect that he would suddenly declare that he would accept another personal disciple.”
“If one day, I could become his personal disciple, even if it were just for a day, I would die a happy man.”
The road outside the imperial capital was filled with people, all chatting and calling out to each other. The War God’s College accepting new honorary disciples was no longer an issue of major interest; accepting a new personal disciple, however, was an earth-shaking event. The importance of such an event was not one whit less than a new Emperor assuming the throne.
After all, in the past five thousand years, the War God O’Brien had only accepted a total of twenty or so personal disciples. Many of them were already deceased.
As for Emperors?
In the past five thousand years, there had been over a hundred of them.
Although in the hearts of the commoners, this was a huge affair, the War God’s Colleges’ method of carrying the recruiting of a personal disciple was very simple: when the time came, they would simply send out a public announcement of who the next personal disciple would be.
The designated time was today at noon.
And thus, early this morning, a large number of people had come to congregate outside War God Mountain. Wharton and Nina naturally went to watch this momentous event as well.
Within their carriage.
“Big lunk, who do you think will become the next personal disciple of the War God?” Nina asked. Even in the eyes of an imperial princess, the War God was high and far above them, someone who they could never approach. Since she was born, Nina had never seen the War God once.
In fact, not even the current reigning Emperor, Johann, had ever met the War God.
But the personally taught disciples of the War God were qualified to meet him. From this, one could see the extremely elite status the War God’s personally taught disciples held. In the past, when that Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier, had refused the enticing offer to become a personally taught disciple of the War God, everyone was shocked and filled with admiration.
“The personally taught disciple of the War God would definitely be a person of enormous talent. At the very least, he would be a warrior of the ninth rank, and one with the possibility of reaching the Saint level.” Wharton’s words were based on historical precedent.
“However, there are too many experts of the ninth rank in the Empire, and talent level is difficult to determine as well. It is very hard to say who the War God will accept as his personal disciple.”
Suddenly, the carriage came to a halt.
“Princess, we’ve already reached War God Mountain. There are too many people up ahead. The carriage can’t pass through,” the driver called out.
Wharton immediately helped Nina off the carriage.
“There are so many people here.” Seeing the sea of people in front of them, Nina couldn’t help but be afraid.
At the base of the cloud-topped War God Mountain, people were densely clustered everywhere. Earlier, carriages might have been able to advance, but now, none would be able to. The mountain roads were filled with people.
“Nina.” Wharton smiled towards Nina.
“Groooowl.” The Saber-Toothed Tiger, who had been following the carriage the entire time, leapt over. Wharton put Nina on top of it. “Have a good seat and take a firm grip. We’ll take a shortcut.”
Nina was both a warrior and a magus. Although she wasn’t very powerful, she was able to clutch quite tightly to the Saber-Toothed Tiger’s neck.
“Let’s go.” Nina was very excited.
The Saber-Toothed Tiger immediately soared into the air, with Wharton travelling at high speed by its side. Wharton and Nina didn’t take the main road; rather, they took some hard-to-traverse side roads from the back of the mountain.
Even the toughest, steepest of mountain paths were as easy for the Saber-Toothed Tiger to traverse as flat land. Wharton was extremely agile as well.
The two of them clambered up at high speed. On the way, they encountered quite a few powerful experts who were using the same method as they were. After all, if they had to squeeze in through the main road, who knew how long it would take?
“Here we are.” With a final leap, Wharton and the Saber-Toothed Tiger arrived at the main plaza.
“Wow. I’m so scared that my entire body is covered with sweat now.” Nina’s little face was very red. She hopped off the Saber-Toothed Tiger’s back.
The neat, flat stone plaza in front of them was extremely large. There were already over ten thousand people present, and yet it didn’t seem crowded at all. In fact, to the contrary, it seemed rather empty.
“Big lunk, did you know that this huge training school’s foundation was originally created by the War God himself? That year, he used one stroke of his sword to slice off the main peak of War God Mountain, then had the War God’s College built on the now-flat land.
Wharton was astonished at the War God’s power.
In truth, War God Mountain actually had several mountain peaks, with one being the primary peak. But the War God effortlessly chopped it off with one blow of his sword, creating a flat surface, upon which these various buildings of the War God’s College were erected, becoming the place where the honorary disciples of the War God’s College would stay.
According to legend, the personally taught disciples of the War God lived at another mountain peak.
“It isn’t time yet. Let’s have a rest.” Holding Nina’s hand, Wharton headed to a nearby stone bench and took a seat.
The plaza began to fill up with more and more people. Finally, the appointed time came.
On the tall dais in the front part of the plaza, there were a large number of people, all of whom were the honorary disciples of the War God’s College. Wh
arton’s ‘competitor’, Lamonte, was there as well.
“Look. A Saint-level expert.”
“Someone is flying over.”
Wharton and Nina all looked upward into the sky. They saw three human forms dressed in blue robes flash through the air, flying shoulder-to-shoulder towards the dais. Finally, they landed.
“Three Saint-level experts!” Everyone present felt their hearts tremble. Normally, even a single Saint-level expert was a rare sight, but now, three had appeared.
After landing, one of the three Saint-level experts, a middle-aged man who appeared to be the leader, said in a loud voice, “Everyone, today, we three fellow apprentices have come at our master’s instruction to announce who the 27th personal disciple will be.”
Everyone grew quiet.
“All three of them are the personal disciples of the War God.” Wharton suddenly felt as though he couldn’t breathe. The War God’s College was simply too powerful. All three of these personal disciples were Saint-level experts. No wonder the O’Brien Empire was named the most militarily mighty Empire in the world.
That middle-aged man continued, “The last time a personal disciple was accepted was in year 9723 of the Yulan calendar. This is now year 10008 of the Yulan calendar. 285 years have passed.”
Everyone below began to murmur. Such a long time had passed between accepting new disciples. 285 years. Many people didn’t even live that long.
“I announce that my master’s 27th personal disciple will be… Blumer Akerlund!”
Hearing this name, everyone in the plaza immediately let out a roar of joyous approval. At the same time, from within the group of honorary disciples who were standing on the dais, Blumer quietly walked out.
Blumer was rather skinny, and his eyes were slightly sunken. He gave the appearance of being a resolute, cold person.
“Respectful greetings to you, senior fellow apprentices.” Blumer bowed as he walked in front of those three men.
Those other three personal disciples of the War God all nodded slightly. Their leader, the middle-aged man, withdrew a scarlet interspatial ring from within his clothes.
Blumer knew that the emblem of one’s status as a personal disciple of the War God was always an interspatial ring, and a scarlet red one at that.
“So it’s him.”
Watching from below, Wharton shook his head slightly. Last time, when he had tried to join the ranks of the honorary disciples, the one who had won in the end was this Blumer.
Unexpectedly, after just a year had passed, Blumer had suddenly become the personal disciple of the War God!
Nina nodded as she said, “The seemingly common and ordinary Akerlund clan actually produced two geniuses in a row. The Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier, was an absolute genius who even the War God wished to take on as his disciple. And now, Olivier’s younger brother, Blumer, has himself become the personal disciple of the War God.”
However, Wharton’s heart was filled with self-confidence despite seeing Blumer’s success.
So what if Blumer was able to join the War God’s College? Wasn’t the point of it all to reach the Saint level? He, Wharton, upon reaching the Saint level as a Dragonblood Warrior, would definitely be a powerful expert amongst the Saint-levels.
144
A Saint-Level Battle
While the citizens of the imperial capital were celebrating the 27th personal disciple the War God had chosen in five thousand years, in the far-off Northwest Administrative Province, Linley and the Saint-level expert, McKenzie, were currently chatting happily over wine. Tonight, they would prepare to do battle.
Tonight, the curved moon hung high in the sky, its faint silver glow covering the world, making it seem as though the entire world had been covered by a layer of gauze.
Atop the small desolate mountain outside the provincial capital of Basil, Linley and McKenzie were walking shoulder to shoulder, with Bebe seated on Linley’s shoulder. The others did not come.
The only witness to this battle would be Bebe.
The small mountain was extremely desolate and depopulated. Aside from a few sparse trees, the mountain peak was empty and bare. Linley and McKenzie stood side by side on the top of the mountain. The mountain wind howled drearily, rustling their clothes.
Linley and McKenzie glanced at each other, each understanding the hidden meaning in the other’s eyes.
Bebe very obediently hopped off from Linley’s shoulders, and Linley removed his upper body clothes, storing them in his interspatial ring. He began to transform, and black scales quickly covered his entire body, while his forehead, back, elbows, and knees began to sprout sharp spikes. That iron-whip-like tail began to swing about behind him, and his eyes suddenly transformed into that merciless dark golden color. That faint layer of blue light appeared on his scales as well. As immense power began to radiate from Linley’s body, dust and small rocks began to be caught up in the swirl of energy.
“Supreme Warriors live up to their name.” McKenzie’s eyes lit up.
“Whoosh!”
Simultaneously, Linley and McKenzie transformed into a pair of rainbows as they flew to the air above the small mountain. They stood there in mid-air, roughly a hundred meters from each other.
McKenzie flipped his hand, and an azure spear appeared within it. “In order to forge this spear, I had to spend twenty million gold coins to purchase all sorts of precious ores. After completing it, I named it ‘Azureflame’.”
Linley flipped his own hand, and the Bloodviolet flexible sword appeared within it.
“I acquired this sword from a very dangerous location in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Its name is ‘Bloodviolet.’”
With regards to his abilities in using Bloodviolet, Linley had reached the fourth level, ‘Profound Truths of the Wind’. However, Linley had only reached the first, simplest stage of the ‘Profound Truths of the Wind’, which he had named ‘Rippling Wind’. Despite that, when combined with the unique properties of Bloodviolet, Linley still felt confident in his ability to deal with McKenzie.
“Being at the Saint level makes me feel as though I am filled with boundless power.” Wielding the Bloodviolet Godsword in his hands, Linley felt extremely confident. “In the past, it was impossible for me to use Bloodviolet to harm a Saint-level combatant. It wasn’t that Bloodviolet was insufficiently sharp; it was that my own battle-qi and strength was far from being sufficient.”
How could the weapons used by most experts, in terms of sharpness, compare with this divine artifact, the Bloodviolet Godsword?
Bloodviolet was so sharp that if one didn’t use any battle-qi, just by virtue of its sharpness, it could pierce the defense of most magical beasts of the seventh rank. How many weapons could possibly compete with such terrifying sharpness?
Once it was matched with a Saint-level amount of battle-qi, its sharpness and power would reach an even more astonishing level.
“Then, let us begin!”
McKenzie’s body began to radiate a boundless desire for battle. Standing high up in the air, as the wind blew his long robes about, McKenzie’s body suddenly began to be covered with a layer of crackling flame, and the Azureflame spear in his hands began to emit flame as well.
His entire body seemed to have been covered by fire.
Clad in flame, and holding his spear at the ready, McKenzie looked like a god of battle.
“His battle-qi has actually reached such a level.” Linley’s eyes lit up.
“Boom!” Linley’s own battle-qi exploded as well, as that azure-black battle-qi totally covered Linley’s body, and also activated Bloodviolet. Those azure-black scales were fully covered by that azure-black battle-qi, making Linley look like a demon from the Infernal Realm.
A hint of a smile was on McKenzie’s lips.
Suddenly…
“Swish!”
Linley only saw a blur as McKenzie slashed his way through the air at him. The spear in McKenzie’s hands, burning with flame, seemed to have locked down all
the surrounding space as it pierced towards Linley with tremendous, boundless power.
At this moment, it seemed as though the only thing which existed in this world was that spear.
“Clang!”
A strange, devilish purple light gently slashed open the locked space, and the tip of the sword clashed against the tip of the spear. As they did, Linley and McKenzie’s battle-qi exploded through their weapons at each other.
“Boooom!”
A terrifying explosive sound blasted forth from between the two of them as the power released from this clash of two Saint-level experts burst forth in all directions. Even the boulders dotting the mountain beneath them began to crack apart from the released battle-qi.
The two separated at high speed after the clash.
“Hrm?” Linley glanced at McKenzie once. “His battle-qi is actually slightly more powerful than mine.” Dragonblood Warriors simply possessed too much natural talent. Even an early-stage Saint-level Dragonblood Warrior would only have just slightly less battle-qi than an ordinary mid-stage Saint-level combatant.
Of the Four Supreme Warriors, the Undying Warriors had the best defense, the Tigerstriped Warriors had the highest speed, the Violetflame Warriors had the fastest healing speed, but the Dragonblood Warriors had the best offense.
Dragonblood Warriors were nothing to joke about.
“Haha, wonderful. Take another attack from me!” McKenzie laughed loudly as he charged towards Linley at high speed again, transforming into three separate mirages as he did so.
“You want to compete in speed?”
Linley smirked.
Linley’s body blurred, then transformed into three separate mirages as he charged towards McKenzie as well, leaving a streak behind in the sky as he did so.
“Haaargh!”
The previously refined McKenzie was now extremely wild and unrestrained as his three mirages transformed into nine. But somehow, those nine shadow-McKenzie’s were all wielding the spear in their hands in a different manner.
Dragonblood: Book 2 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 113