Only, Linley himself remained worried.
“The enemy is definitely extraordinary, to be able to create this bizarre castle. Everything else aside, Delia hasn’t reached the Highgod level yet.” Linley carefully yet speedily moved through the castle, hoping that he would run into Delia within.
But suddenly…
“Huh?”
Linley reached an opening, then out of the corner of his eye, saw someone hovering in mid-air.
“The black-horned elder?” Linley immediately recognized him. That black-haired elder clearly had seen Linley as well, as he looked over towards him.
But right at this moment, the gentle wind suddenly took solid form, transforming into a green-robed elder. The green-robed elder had a hint of a smile on his face. He glanced sideways at Linley, not worried at all. “A God actually ran here as well.”
To the green-robed elder, a God was someone he could kill in an instant. Given his status and stature, he couldn’t be bothered to care about Linley at all.”
“You are…?” The black-horned elder saw the green-robed elder appear out of thin area, and his face changed dramatically.
The green-robed elder glanced calmly at the black-horned elder before him. “You truly are bold. For you and your brother to abscond with the enormous fortune of the Boyd clan is one thing, but… I didn’t expect that after so many years, you two would dare to turn back. What, you wish to return to the Jadefloat Continent?”
The black-horned elder’s face changed, and then he chuckled in a ‘relieved’ manner. “That year, my big brother and I fled from the Jadefloat Continent. We thought that no one had detected us. This time, we only invited so many Fiends out of an abundance of caution, but I wouldn’t have expected that you would come!”
The green-robed elder let out a disdainful snort.
“You want to acquire the fortune of the Boyd clan? Haha…”
The black-horned elder suddenly raised his head and laughed loudly, then stared at the green-robed elder. “Keep dreaming. For us two brothers to dare come on this trip means that we naturally came fully prepared. Even if you kill both of us, you won’t be able to obtain the treasures of the Boyd clan! You… will never get it!”
The green-robed elder’s face suddenly sank.
He had followed his student, Inigo, from the Jadefloat Continent through the Starmist Seas to the Redbud Continent. It was all for the sake of the fortune of the Boyd clan.
“Hmph. Once I kill you, I’ll know.” The green-robed elder, with a wave of his hand, summoned forth a longsword that looked like a silver thread. This was a flexible sword, but compared to Linley’s ‘Bloodviolet’ sword, it was even thinner and even lighter.
“Prepare to die.” The green-robed elder, confident of his status, would usually notify his opponent before killing them.
As soon as the black-horned elder had seen the Castle of the Winds, he had understood how powerful the opponent was.
Although he himself was also a Highgod, compared to the person in front of him, the difference was considerable.
“You want to kill me? I will make you pay a price.” The black-horned elder had already made up his mind to die here. Bellowing, he made a black heavy sword appear in his hands. Instantly, the air around the black heavy sword began to twist, and a black light shot out in every direction.
Linley, seeing these two Highgods about to battle, couldn’t help but feel startled. “I’d better run. If I get involved in this, I’ll be finished!” Linley didn’t hesitate at all, immediately running towards the direction of one of the other corridors.
Although he was moving quickly…
“Bang!”
The first clash by these two Highgods caused the black-horned elder’s body to be sent flying towards Linley’s direction at high speed.
“Huh?” Linley couldn’t help but feel stunned. Raising his head, he watched as the body flew towards him.
But with a flip, the black-horned elder righted himself, standing up. Just now, one of the divine clones of the black-horned elder was killed.
“You want to kill me?” The black-horned elder was now fully aware of how great their difference in power was. One of his clones had just been destroyed, and he now only had this one left. “Clan master, your old servant didn’t let you down. Only, in the future, your old servant won’t be able to toil on behalf of the young master any longer.”
“Bang!”
The black-horned elder’s long blade, carrying an earth-splitting force, transformed into a black blade shadow, causing space to distort and leaving behind nothing more than a faint blur.
“Haha… you just had one of your divine clones die. I want to see how many you have left!” The green-robed elder laughed wildly, and then Linley only noticed a hint of a beautiful silver flash. Wherever those rays of silver light flashed past, space itself began to form extremely tiny cracks.
Linley was shocked.
“Cracks? Cracks in space in the Infernal Realm?” Linley found it hard to believe.
“Boom!”
The black-horned elder was only able to block a single silver ray of light; afterwards, his entire body was criss-crossed by the multiple remaining rays of silver light. His body was chopped into multiple parts that fell down from the skies. In particular, the interspatial ring on his left hand was sent flying downwards.
At this moment…
“Interspatial ring?” Linley had a thought. He absolutely could collect this interspatial ring for himself.
“Can I take it?”
The black-horned elder’s interspatial ring definitely had an enormous fortune within it. Linley was certain of this. As one of their employers, a person capable of inviting a Six Star Fiend, the amount of wealth this black-horned elder had was definitely staggering. Only, was he able to collect it?
Linley looked at the distant green-robed elder, then without hesitating at all, immediately fled.
“I wouldn’t be alive to spend it.”
Linley fled at high speed, quickly traversing thousands of meters, disappearing from the green-robed elder’s field of vision. Only, every location within this castle was under the control of this green-robed elder. Naturally, he knew exactly where Linley had gone. The green-robed elder chuckled. “This God didn’t let greed cloud his judgment.”
If Linley had stolen that interspatial ring, even if the green-robed elder originally would have had disdained killing Linley, a God, the green-robed elder would have personally intervened to retrieve the ring. At that point, Linley would have had no chance at all.
“What does he have inside?” The green-robed elder landed, then collected his interspatial ring while binding it with blood.
The green-robed elder’s face changed greatly. “Hrm? Only thirty billion inkstones. How is that possible? As little as that?” The green-robed elder couldn’t believe it. “Impossible. The fortune of the Boyd clan was built up over countless years. Even the tiniest part of it would exceed this amount.”
Perhaps to Linley or to ordinary Highgods, thirty billion inkstones was an enormous fortune.
But…
To the green-robed elder and other such experts, it was nothing more than a small sum of money. If you were to compare these thirty billion inkstones to the entire fortune of the Boyd clan… that would be like a single hair on the bodies of nine bulls! It must be understood… that within a city, a single hotel was worth tens of billions of inkstones.
How could the fortune of the Boyd clan be compared to a single hotel?
“No. There’s also that white-horned elder.” The green-robed elder’s eyes were cold. “The wealth is definitely on him.” But when he sensed the location of that white-horned elder, his face changed dramatically. “Not good… that Fiend is about to draw close to the white-horned elder.”
Learmonth’s face was cold and callous. Wielding his longsword, he walked calmly through the castle as though he was just taking a stroll in his own garden. When he encountered any yellow sand walls,
he would still walk straight through them, completely ignoring the walls in front of him.
His sword would flash!
“Crunch!”
The yellow sand walls were all directly destroyed. Learmonth himself moved like an illusion, passing through the empty hole, while the yellow sand wall immediately recovered afterwards.
“Hmph.” Learmonth turned to look coldly towards the side.
“Swish!” Like a bolt lightning, his sword chopped out towards the distant yellow sand wall. Instantly, fresh blood exploded out from the yellow sand wall, and a corpse fell down from within the wall. The eyes of the corpse were filled with shock, as though he couldn’t believe that Learmonth had noticed him.
Learmonth continued forward.
Nobody could block his advance!
“I know you can hear me,” Learmonth said while walking. “You might as well come out. Do you believe that I am unable to break through your spatial castle?”
“Crunch!”
Yet another sword chop flashed out against the impediment in front of him, and Learmonth’s body swayed yet again, appearing on the opposite side of that way.
“Ah, Mr. Learmonth.” The white-horned elder stared in astonishment and joy at Learmonth, whose face revealed a rare hint of a smile.
“I was a step behind.” The green-robed elder was hidden only a few hundred meters away from the white-horned elder, in a room. “This one named Learmonth? His attack power is truly frightening. With but a casual attack, he is able to generate such power. If he were to truly explode forth…”
The green-robed elder had extraordinary experience. Of course he could tell that Learmonth had yet to use his ultimate attack.
Generally speaking, extremely powerful experts like them would stake their lives on their ultimate attacks, which usually consumed a great deal of spiritual energy and divine power. Thus, unless a critical moment came, these ultimate experts generally wouldn’t want to use their ultimate attacks.
“That damnable fellow.” The green-robed elder immediately came to a decision. “Right now, all I can do is find more Highgods and have them attack the white-horned elder, while I personally go entangle that Learmonth for a while.”
The green-robed elder understood that there was no way the other Highgods could entangle Learmonth.
But to kill the white-horned elder, only a few Highgods needed to join forces and sneak attack him. That was all that would be needed.
As the battles continued unabated within the castle of sand, the number of Highgods grew lower and lower.
Salomon stood calmly in mid-air.
“I hope Nisse is fine.” Salomon was still worried in his heart.
“Swoosh!”
Suddenly, from the nearby wall, two figures appeared who shot straight towards Salomon, their wild releases of energy causing space to shudder.
“Hmph!” Salomon, with a flip of his hand, emitted multiple rays of black light. Those two figures let out miserable screams. One of them suddenly smashed against the floor, never to move again, while the other fled into the yellow sand walls, disappearing.
“Want to kill me?” Salomon chuckled.
The battles continued, and one Highgod Fiend after another fell.
“Aside from that terrifying Fiend, there are four Highgods that are hard to deal with.” Inigo heard the reports from his subordinates and began to frown. He didn’t know that those four extremely hard to deal with Highgod Fiends were the Edwards brothers and Salomon!
Star rank didn’t necessarily, completely testify as to one’s strength.
For example, a powerful Fiend might only be a One Star Fiend as he might have just taken the Fiend trials. But that didn’t mean his power was only at the One-Star-level.
Salomon was a good example. On the surface, he was only a Four Star Fiend. But his true power?
Not all Fiends could be judged by their star rank.
“No need to deal with those Highgods. There’s no profit from them,” Inigo gave the order. His real goal was just those two old fellows. There was no need to kill all of the Highgod Fiends. "For now, no need to join forces. Attack as you please. Deal with all of the God-level Fiends."
For Highgods to kill Gods, naturally there was no need for them to join forces.
“Yes, young master!”
The Highgods disappeared into the yellow sand.
With this order being given, the God-level Fiends within the castle fell into grave danger, including Linley, Bebe, Delia and Nisse…
A crisis had descended!
Linley carefully walked through the yellow sand, his hands, legs, neck, and head all covered with an earthen yellow membrane. He looked as though he were a metal warrior. Linley had already used his ‘Pulseguard Armor’ to protect every part of his body.
“Swoosh!” An explosive sword shadow suddenly descended upon Linley from the side!
Linley only felt as though suddenly, he had transformed into a tiny boat that was currently being rocked by the wild waves of the ocean.
39
Many Dangers
“A Highgod!”
Linley glided away like a bird in flight, gliding away alongside that explosive burst of sword energy while at the same time, the adamantine heavy sword appeared in his hand. Wielding it as though it were weightless, he sent it slamming over… and a multiple-meter-long earthen yellow sword shadow chopped out.
Pulsating Essence Attack!
This was a type of material attack developed after fusing the ‘Essence of the Earth’ and the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’. It was primarily reliant upon the ‘Essence of the Earth’, with the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ supporting it.
Compared to the ‘Voidwave Sword’, it was the opposite; the Voidwave Sword was primarily reliant on the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’, while the ‘Essence of the Earth’ supported it.
“BANG!”
The two forces collided, and the wild explosive force backlashed onto both. Linley borrowed that backlash force to flee, while the golden-haired youth also took a few steps back. He stared in astonishment at Linley. “What a powerful sword. A God actually has such strength!”
This gold-haired youth was not angry; he was instead delighted.
These Highgods didn’t have much interest in killing God-level Fiends, but now this Highgod did. Just based on that sword alone, Linley was qualified to have him treat this fight seriously.
“Swoosh.” Launching himself upwards, the Highgod shot out like an arrow, piercing through the air at high speed in pursuit of Linley.
Linley, fleeing in front of him, had already begun moving at his maximum speed early on, but the enemy behind him continued to draw closer. “This Highgod is so fast, and also, it seems he is a wind-style Highgod as well.” From the opponent’s previous attack, he could essentially sense that the opponent was a wind-style Highgod.
“Haha, flee?”
The gold-haired youth pursued at high speed while reaching out with his left hand, clawing at the air.
“What’s this?” While fleeing, Linley’s face changed dramatically. His body seemed to have been bound by countless thin threads. Although Linley was still able to flee, a restrictive force seemed to act upon him. Even his speed fell down by half!
“This is the Profound Mysteries of Dimensional Space!” Linley instantly realized what this was. He had seen Delia often use this technique against others. But now, Linley was the one who had been hit.
“Terrible!” Linley’s heart was filled with worry. “The power of this Highgod in using this technique is much greater than Delia’s.” Linley knew that the strength of an attack was connected to one’s divine power. The same type of profound mystery at different levels of divine power had different strength levels.
In the blink of an eye, the gold-haired youth reached a distance of less than ten meters from Linley.
“You won’t be able to run!” A loud laugh rang out, and a strange ripple spread over Linley. Linley’s speed dropped yet
again, and in his heart, he was shocked. “The Godrealm of a Highgod!” Linley knew long ago that facing a Highgod was extremely dangerous.
Although there was a chance for victory, he only had a tiny chance.
“In terms of profound mysteries, this gold-haired youth is a Highgod who knows all nine profound mysteries of the Elemental Laws of the Wind. I can only hope that he hasn’t fused any of the profound mysteries.” Linley knew that the only chance of success he had was… a soul attack!
“The Voidwave Sword must not fail.”
Linley had continuously fled upon meeting this gold-haired youth; he didn’t use his Voidwave Sword at all. Linley didn’t dare to rashly unleash it; he had to seize the best opportunity to kill the opponent in one blow. Otherwise, given the difference between him and his opponent, the opponent could easily rely on his speed to use a material attack to kill Linley.
Thus…
It was one thing to not unleash his ultimate attack, but if he was to unleash it, he had to succeed.
“Either you die or I die.” Linley continued to grit his teeth, constantly thinking up new ways to flee.
However, now that he was bound by the ‘Dimensional Wind’ and the ‘Godrealm’, and given that Linley’s speed was lower to begin with and was now only a third of his normal speed, the difference between them was so great… that unless something unexpected were to happen, the outcome of this battle was predetermined.
“Swish!” Linley’s body suddenly came to a halt. His face changed dramatically as he stared in front of himself.
In front of Linley, behind him, and above him, there were ten ‘gold-haired youths’. This gold-haired youth had actually created nearly forty doppelgangers, completely encircling Linley.
“The situation just got worse.” Linley was frantic. “The forty doppelgangers…which one is the real one? Bebe isn’t present. I’m unable to determine which one is real. What should I do?” Linley gripped the adamantine heavy sword, looking cautiously about him.
The gold-haired youth had transformed into nearly forty doppelgangers to encircle Linley.
The Infernal Plane: Book 5 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 30