The speaker of these words was the silver-haired elder with the three black horns.
At this moment, the silver-haired elder was cursing silently to himself. “This damn place, since when did it have a bandit group with ten thousand people? It even has twenty Highgods. I’ve never even heard of this group!”
“Haha…”
The leader of the bandit brigade, a red-robed man, laughed loudly. “It seems you are rather straightforward. Then I won’t make things difficult for you either. We have a total of ten thousand brothers here. How about this. We won’t ask for too much. Just give us ten billion inkstones. What do you say?”
Ten billion inkstones!
This figure shocked the silver-haired elder upon hearing it.
“Ten billion inkstones?” The silver-haired elder stared somewhat disbelievingly at the red-robed man.
“Ten billion?” Bebe muttered. “This asking price is really steep.”
Linley, upon hearing this figure, thought back to how he himself had a hundred million inkstones. “They immediately ask for ten billion inkstones. It seems the amount of wealth I have is nothing.”
“My friend, ten billion inkstones is a bit too high, isn’t it?” The silver-haired elder’s tone of voice became slightly harder. “Ten billion inkstones, I cannot accept this price. How about we lower it a bit…” The silver-haired elder stared at the red-robed man.
The red-robed man had long, fiery red hair.
“Unable to accept it?”
The red-robed man glanced around himself, laughing loudly. “Brothers, did you hear that?”
“Haha…” Many experts began to laugh.
The red-haired man suddenly shouted ferociously, “Kill them!”
“Kill!” “Kill!” “Kill!” “Kill!”
The bandits simultaneously called out, while at the same time…
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”
Ten thousand experts almost simultaneously launched their attacks, either using formless soul attacks or all sorts of material attacks. The entire sky was densely filled with countless sword images, saber images, elemental beasts, and more…
Covering the entire sky, these attacks charged towards Linley’s group.
The faces of all the Fiends couldn’t help but change.
Even someone as powerful as the Six Star Fiend, Learmonth, couldn’t take the combined attacks of ten thousand Gods head-on at the same time. He was only able to protect himself and a few people around him.
“Retreat!”
Linley growled, while at the same time he, Delia, Bebe, Nisse, and Solomon shot downwards at high speed. Although they retreated at high speed, the speed of the attacks was astonishingly fast. In almost an instant, the material attacks and soul attacks arrived.
Linley’s group relied on their dodging abilities to avoid, but the attacks were too numerous, too dense, and too fast!
“Swoosh!” The Deathgod Golem emerged, blocking in front of Linley’s group. Two sword energy attacks smashed viciously on the Deathgod Golem’s body, and the superficial layer of skin and flesh on the Deathgod Golem split open, revealing the metallic body underneath it, which wasn’t damaged at all.
However, multiple soul attacks completely bypassed the Deathgod Golem, easily going straight through its body.
“Delia.” Linley directly interposed his own body in front of Delia’s, and a soul attack struck into Linley’s body.
“Ninny.” Bebe did the same for Nisse.
Nisse, for a moment, was completely stunned.
The first wave of attacks passed.
“Linley, are you alright?” Delia was somewhat worried. Linley turned and laughed towards her. “Delia, don’t you know how powerful I am yet?” Linley was specialized in soul defense. How could a soul attack launched from so far away harm him?
“Bebe, Bebe.” Nisse was frantic with worry, and her eyes even began to tear up. “Bebe, are you alright?” Nisse was at the point of tears. Although she and Bebe had known each other for a long time, they had never faced any threats, and so she didn’t know how powerful Bebe was.
All she knew was that Bebe was just a God.
Bebe just grabbed her by the waist. “Let’s run. Stop blabbering.” He charged downwards, while a look of delight instantly appeared on Nisse’s face.
“That kid.” Salomon nodded slightly in approval. “It seems I can entrust him with my sister.”
All of the Fiends had scattered.
“Haha, not one of you will escape. Kill, kill!!!” the red-robed man bellowed. Several Highgods took command over several units, running in each direction as they began their pursuit and slaughter of the Fiends. As for the ten or so other Highgods, they led nearly five thousand other Gods, heading towards that silver-haired elder who was the employer for this mission.
Actually, the employer wasn’t just that silver-haired, black-horned elder. There was another white-horned, silver-haired elder.
The two silver-haired elders glanced at each other.
“Mr. Learmonth, Edwards brothers, we’ll be relying on you,” the black-horned silver-haired elder said.
“Don’t worry,” Learmonth said calmly, while the three Edwards brothers were supremely confident as well.
Linley, Delia, Bebe, Nisse, and Salomon formed into a five-person party. They were currently being pursued by hundreds of Gods.
“They want to chase us?”
Linley, holding Delia by the hand, suddenly accelerated dramatically. It must be understood that at present, Linley had already reached a bottleneck in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ profound mysteries. He was very close to the level of mastery. His speed was far faster than that of these ordinary Gods.
Bebe’s speed was astonishing as well. He was also holding Nisse by the hand. As for Solomon, as a Highgod, he naturally caught up easily.
Soon, they threw off the hundreds of Gods chasing after them.
“Being outnumbered really is a pain.” Salomon laughed sourly. Hundreds of Gods… if he were to fight them, he might indeed be capable of killing all of those Gods, but it was also possible that he himself would be the one to be killed. After all, there were simply too many Gods.
For example…
If ten soul attacks hit him at the same time, although he was powerful, he would still die.
“Bebe.” Nisse’s little face was red as she looked at Bebe. “Thanks.”
Bebe immediately began to laugh. “Ninny, why thank me? With the relationship we have, is thanks necessary?”
Nisse, seeing the look of teasing laughter on Bebe’s face, couldn’t help but intentionally let out a snort. Watching this nearby, Linley, Delia, and Salomon all revealed hints of a smile on their faces.”
“Another group of Gods. Let’s hurry up and leave,” Linley immediately shouted through his divine sense. There were simply too many Gods here. They had just avoided one squad of hundreds of Gods, but now another one had noticed them. Linley’s group immediately began to flee again.
In terms of speed, they were still at a huge advantage.
Suddenly…
“Rumble…” The entire world began to shake, and invisible spatial ripples spread out, causing the trees and stones that were hit by the ripples to directly turn into powder.
Linley’s group stared in mid-air in astonishment. Not just Linley; all of the luckily surviving Fiends on the battlefield as well as the ten thousand bandits all raised their heads…
Learmonth was there in mid-air, sweeping his sword across. Ten plus Highgod corpses fell down from the sky at the same time.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” Of those ten plus Highgod corpses, eight divine clones suddenly emerged from within them and began to flee in every which way.
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Sword Intent
Instantly, the entire battlefield fell silent.
Over ten Highgods had actually been killed in a single blow. This was simply inconceivable!
“How is this possible?” Linley sta
red with wide eyes. “Even if it was a soul attack, he would at most be able to hit one person. How could ten Highgods simultaneously fall from the skies? What happened just now?” Linley now regretted it.
Regretted not having seen that sword attack.
“Flee!”
“Flee!”
The divine clones that had emerged from eight of those Highgod corpses began fleeing in terror in every which way. After having witnessed the power of that sword, none of them had any courage to fight again.
“Too powerful. Too frightening.”
These Highgods now truly had the fear of death in them.
“Fleeing?” Learmonth watched calmly as those eight divine clones fled, a hint of a cold smile at the corner of his lips.
Suddenly…
He drew his sword!
In that instant, eight rays of black sword shadows sliced through the air simultaneously, attacking in eight different directions towards those eight fleeing divine clones. Those eight divine clones continued to move forward, but their bodies were bisected, then fell down from the skies.
Blood splashed everywhere in the air.
“That sword!” Linley’s pupils shrank, and in his mind, he frantically began to think about that sword.
That terrifying, nearly invincible sword!
In Linley’s mind, the image of that sword flashed through as fast as lightning. That sort of extremely fast sword that had the ‘intent’ of an exploding volcano. In the instant the sword had been drawn, the power of the technique had been completely, explosively released… it was utterly unblockable. Wherever the sword shadow passed, destruction came with it.
“Is this the Way of Destruction?” Linley hurriedly shook his head. “It doesn’t seem like it. It seemed like…”
In his mind, Linley was frantically trying to deconstruct that attack on a deeper level, the more he analyzed it… with each minor insight Linley gained, the more questions he had as well.
By now, the leader of this bandit group, that muscular, red-robed man, had fled long ago. Just now, he had been calling out for combat and killing, but he only had his subordinates attack. He himself stayed in the back, not charging forward to attack at all. When he saw that destructive sword, he had immediately chosen…
To flee!
“What a terrifying fellow. That sword was capable of simultaneously killing ten plus Highgods!” The red-robed man’s heart was filled with terror. “If I had been slightly slower, most likely I would have been killed by that frightening Fiend as well. How could these two old fellows have invited such a powerful Fiend?”
The red-robed man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “This Fiend is so formidable. It seems that this time, we’ll need to invite the young master’s teacher, ‘Mr. Wind’, to personally get involved.”
“Hmph.” The red-robed man glanced backwards. “These idiots. Did they think the money of me, Vionnaz, was so easily earned? They were able to make money, but they weren’t able to spend it. Unfortunately, the twelve Highgods that the young master gave me as subordinates all died as well.”
The red-robed man was Vionnaz, one of Inigo’s subordinates.
As for the bandit army, Vionnaz had spent money to invite several major bandit organizations to form a single group. After all, Vionnaz had led twelve Highgods, while the other bandit organizations all combined only had seven or eight Highgods.
In particular, Vionnaz had given them an enormous sum of money.
These bandit groups had naturally joined up. In recent days, they had joined forces to waylay quite a few groups.
“I need to hurry back to let the kid immediately inform the young master.” Vionnaz immediately flew back towards his own residence.
With two divine clones being in two locations, communications were naturally quite fast. Inigo was thus easily kept abreast of the situation regarding Linley’s metallic lifeform.
After the leaders of the bandit group were slaughtered, and especially after Learmonth’s sword attack, all of the bandits lost their willpower and they began to flee in every direction. Instantly… not a single bandit group was now left.
“They really ran quite quickly!” Bebe snorted.
“This Learmonth…” Even Salomon was shocked by Learmonth, standing in mid-air. Learmonth’s face was cold and calm, as though nothing had happened. Indeed, to Learmonth, this sort of small battle was nothing at all.
“Linley?” Delia called out softly.
But currently, Linley was completely lost in his own world as he pondered on that astonishing sword attack. How could he notice Delia’s call?
“Hey, what’s going on with the Boss?” Bebe noticed that Linley seemed strange as well. The nearby Nisse laughed. “Bebe, could it be that your Boss was scared silly by that sword of Learmonth’s?” Nisse teased intentionally.
Bebe gave her a stare. “What do you know? My Boss probably had some insight.”
At this moment, Linley returned to wakefulness.
“Linley, are you alright?” Delia felt that the look on Linley’s face was rather odd.
“I’m fine.” Linley shook his head and laughed. “Just now, I was thinking about a few things. I actually thought that I was about to make a breakthrough, but I was wrong.” Linley glanced at the distant Learmonth, his eyes filled with astonishment and puzzlement. “That sword…”
Linley was also a sword-wielder, and his soul was shaped as a sword.
With regards to the concept of a sword’s ‘intent’, he had his own thoughts as well.
“I’ve only just mastered the basics of the Essence of Fire, and haven’t even become a Deity. Most likely, I guessed wrongly.” Linley was still lingering over those eight lightning-fast sword attacks. At his current level of power, Linley was not capable of seeing through the profound truths of that sword.
The nearby Salomon laughed and said, “Linley, are you shocked by Learmonth’s sword? Indeed, the sword attack by Learmonth just now was definitely at an extremely high level of the ‘Way of Destruction’.”
“Way of Destruction?” Linley raised an eyebrow.
“What, weren’t you able to sense the aura of the ‘Way of Destruction’?” Salomon asked.
“I sensed it,” Linley said, but didn’t follow up.
“If Linley sensed it, why is he surprised?” Salomon was somewhat puzzled, but he didn’t speak it aloud.
Immediately, the lucky, surviving Fiends all headed towards Learmonth and the black-horned silver-haired elder. Soon, more than fifty Fiends gathered around them.
The black-horned, silver-haired elder and the white-horned, silver-haired elder looked at each other, a hint of worry in their eyes. They had already begun to guess… the reason why so many bandits had come to waylay them. It must be understood that generally speaking, when a bandit group discovered so many Fiends, they wouldn’t attack.
The black-haired elder said loudly, “Everyone, I didn’t expect that we would encounter so many bandit attacks on this trip. I truly am sorry. In such a short time, more than sixty Fiends have died. Thankfully, Mr. Learmonth as well as Edwards and his brothers were here…”
“When we reach Bluemaple City, we will add additional money to your compensation.”
The black-horned elder said, and then a golden light flashed as the metallic lifeform once more formed in mid-air. However… the metallic lifeform was now clearly smaller in size.
The Fiends once more filled it, entering the metallic lifeform.
Soon, the metallic lifeform headed out once more. Fiends lived a life on the bloody edge of a blade to begin with. These Fiends who had lived for countless years only wanted their lives to be more exciting and to reach the peak of power in the Infernal Realm. To them, life and death…
Right, death was something they didn’t wish to face, and when they encountered any dangers they weren’t able to resist, the Fiends would flee.
But when death truly came, they wouldn’t be in terror.
After all, ever since they became Fiends, e
very single one of them had become mentally prepared for that possibility!
“The black-horned elder has a bit of a conscience. He knows he should increase our compensation.” Bebe snorted. “I keep on having the feeling that this escort mission isn’t simple.”
Linley nodded as well. “Right. Only, when we took on the mission, the only thing we noticed was that more than a hundred One Star Fiends and Two Star Fiends had been recruited. Who would have imagined… that there were Four Star Fiends, Five Star Fiends, and even a Six Star Fiend taking part as well!” Linley understood that this sort of ‘group mission’ was divided into different parts.
It was much like the battle at Moon Lake Castle.
Linley’s group was responsible for dealing with gold-robed guards, while the powerful Highgod Fiends were responsible for dealing with black-robed guards as well as the castle’s master.
This mission, with a Six Star Fiend involved, wasn’t a simple one either.
“Everyone is already on board. What is there to think about?” Salomon shook his head. “If just now, when facing the attack of the bandits, taking the chance to flee would have been one thing. But right now, we are already aboard the metallic creature. If we want to leave and retreat now, once this gets out… we’ll lose face.”
Spineless, fearful cowards.
They would definitely become a laughingstock.
“Everyone, calmly train,” Linley said seriously. “No matter what, even if we encounter enemies, the primary target isn’t us. It is the black-horned elder and the white-horned elder. We just need to work hard to protect ourselves.”
Linley didn’t have any intention of protecting their employers. After all…
Those two elders were both Highgods, while Linley himself was just a God.
“Right.”
Everyone nodded, and then scattered towards their own rooms to begin training. In this room, only Linley and Delia were left.
“I wonder why those two old fellows chose us, mere Gods, to participate in the mission.” Linley was still filled with confusion. “Forget it. Protecting Delia and Bebe is enough.” Linley looked at Delia, and then closed his eyes and began to train.
The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 28