“Forbidden technique?” Blumer frowned.
Suddenly, he remembered…
A while ago, he wanted to learn the obsidian sword technique from his elder brother, but Olivier had instructed to focus on learning the Lightshadow sword technique, and not to train in the diametrically opposite obsidian sword technique.
“Could it be that there really is some sort of taboo preventing people from utilizing two diametrically opposite Elemental Laws at the same time?” Blumer lowered his head to stare at his older brother.
Olivier’s face was ruddy, and his body was clearly in peak condition. But he still didn’t wake up, and his spiritual aura was extremely weak, as though it could be extinguished at any moment.
“Lord Olivier lost?”
“His brother carried his corpse out. Alas, the Prodigy Sword Saint has died.”
“Who said he died? Maybe he’s just unconscious due to his injury.”
“No matter what happened, Lord Haydson, the Monolithic Sword Saint, seems to be fine, and even flew down from the skies. Clearly, he is far stronger than Lord Olivier.”
Those millions of spectators were all discussing this battle. Although the skies were filled with torrential rain, it couldn’t douse their burning ardor. Everyone was filled with excitement at what they had just seen. Regardless of whether Olivier was dead or just passed out from his injuries, one thing was certain…
The victor of this duel was the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson!
This result was one which the vast majority had predicted. After all, Haydson had been famous for too long, and was reputed to be the most powerful Saint alive. He had never been defeated. It was very normal for him to be the victor of this duel.
Everyone would’ve been stunned if Haydson had lost.
The flood of spectators slowly began to melt away. Many began to head towards the imperial capital, while others headed towards some villages on the outskirts of the city.
The people slowly left, but the soldiers still stood guard.
“My elder brother won’t die,” Blumer said coldly. And then, carrying his elder brother’s body, he ordered his servants to carry the Lightshadow and obsidian swords and follow him. Blumer left, carrying his older brother in his arms.
“I hope Olivier can make it past this disaster.” Emperor Johann sighed. Right now, Emperor Johann was surrounded by over a thousand people.
These people were all nobles. Many of them wished to know if Olivier was alive or dead.
“Lord Haydson truly is powerful. Once again, he won easily,” a distant noble’s voice rang out respectfully. Haydson laughed calmly.
And then Haydson looked at Linley. With a loud laugh, he said, “Actually, compared to Olivier, I’d rather have a competition against Master Linley.”
A stunned silence.
Everyone was shocked. Haydson had just completed a major duel with Olivier, and now he wanted to challenge Linley to a duel?
Linley was silent for a moment, then spoke. “Haydson, what do you mean by this?”
Haydson smiled. “Last time at the Coloseeum, you and Olivier didn’t finish your duel, but Olivier had drawn his obsidian sword, and you had prepared your adamantine heavy sword. I remember at that time, you had said that your adamantine heavy sword techniques were based on the Laws of the Earth, right?”
“Indeed.” Linley nodded.
“I, too, am a person who studies the Laws of the Earth. I imagine that if we were to engage in a competition, it would be of great benefit to both of us in our attempts to break through to a higher level of understanding.” Haydson looked at Linley. “Linley, I’d like to invite you to spar. Would you accept?”
Neither the surrounding nobles nor Emperor Johann dared to make a sound.
One was reputedly the strongest Saint alive. The other was a Saint who was a genius the likes of which the world had never seen.
“Big Brother…” Wharton couldn’t help but speak out.
Linley turned to glance at his little brother. He chuckled.
Wharton, in his heart, was frantic and angry. He thought to himself, “This Haydson really is despicable. He just finished beating Olivier to the brink of death. Does he now want to kill my Big Brother as well? Is it because he saw both my Big Brother and Olivier are both geniuses, and are afraid that in the future, they would threaten his status?”
Wharton wasn’t the only person thinking this. Many of the people present were thinking this as well.
After all, Linley and Olivier were both dazzling geniuses. One had been beaten to the point where whether or not he would survive was at question. And now, Haydson invited Linley to spar? Many people naturally questioned his real motives.
“What, you refuse?” Haydson asked with a laugh.
Linley looked at Haydson, a smile on his face. “Name a time, and name a place.”
Haydson was startled.
He immediately understood that this meant Linley was accepting his challenge. “I’ve already competed today against Olivier and am not in peak form. How about this. Three months from now, on August 4th, in the air above Mt. Tujiao, east of the city. Let’s have our competition there.”
“Fine.” Linley smiled and nodded.
Linley wanted to duel with Haydson as well. He had just begun to understand this Pulseguard Defense technique. Combining that with his ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’ attack, Linley didn’t think that he would be easily defeated. After all, he not only was protected by the Pulseguard Defense, he also was protected by his draconic scales. With such powerful defenses, most likely it would be hard to say if Haydson’s was better or his own was better.
“Since this is the case, then your Imperial Majesty, Linley, I’ll bid you farewell.” Haydson nodded to each of them, then transformed into a gray streak of light as he flew away into the sky.
“Big Bro…” Wharton ran over frantically.
“I’m fine. Victory and defeat is yet to be determined.” Linley smiled confidently, and then he led his people back towards their residence.
As for those nobles and the members of the imperial clan, they were all engaged in endless speculation. After a while though, all of them returned back to the imperial capital as well under the cover of rain.
The Channe River once more regained its normal peacefulness. Only the mess left behind at the riverbanks gave testament to the earlier excitement.
At the place where the Channe River and the Yulan River intersected, a six-story-tall enormous ship was sailing from the Yulan River into the Channe River. A row of knights was standing in a neat line on the deck.
Many of those powerful knights had magical beasts as well. Ordinary people did not have access to magical beasts; for so many of the knights to have magical beasts meant that the status of the person on this ship was quite extraordinary.
“When we arrive at the Channe River, we’ll be only three days out from the imperial capital of the O’Brien Empire. Unfortunately, we’ll have missed the duel between the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier, and Lord Haydson.”
The warriors on the ship’s deck were chatting amongst each other.
Right at this time, a man with white streaked hair came out onto the top deck. He seemed to be a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. By his side was a brown-furred bear that looked charmingly naïve. This bear was roughly as tall as a person was, and seemed very cute.
“Growl. Growl.” “Master. I really don’t feel comfortable here on the water. Let’s fly instead,” that seemingly charming, naïve bear said to the middle-aged man.
“I know you hate water.” The middle-aged man laughed as he walked to the chain linked side of the boat, staring down into the waves.
“Your Honor.” Seeing the middle-aged man, the soldiers on the ship deck all called out respectfully. Just at this time, a tall, golden-haired beautiful woman came walking out with a smile. Laughing, she headed towards the middle-aged man. “Teacher, we’ve already arrived at the Channe River. We should be arriving at th
e O’Brien Empire soon.”
The middle-aged man laughed as he glanced at the golden-haired woman. “Haha. Indeed, we are. Delia, I think you are even more impatient than I am.”
28
The Yulan Empire’s Special Envoy
That adorable looking bear laughed as well. “Right, right. As soon as Delia found out that that Linley fellow was here, she immediately started scheming to come as well.”
“Big Yellow, do you want to die?” Delia grabbed the big bear by his ear.
“It doesn’t hurt. Haha. It doesn’t hurt,” the big bear said delightedly.
“Hrmph.” Delia wrinkled her nose and pouted. “Big Yellow, I know you are powerful, alright? You are a Worldbear and you have thick skin. You aren’t afraid of me twisting your ears.” As she spoke, she walked over to stand next to the middle-aged man and ignored the bear.
The big bear rubbed its head, said in a deep, adorable voice, “Delia, don’t be angry. It was my mistake, alright?”
Delia looked at him and started to laugh.
“Hatton, Delia is just teasing you. She won’t get angry that easily,” the middle-aged man said with a calm laugh, and then he turned to stare at the skies. “Parry is coming back.”
From the skies, a hawk with a wingspan of five or six meters came swooping towards the ship at high speed. This hawk was extremely fast, and it seemed to move at the speed of lightning. Its eyes were golden, and it had a crest of blue feathers atop its head. It appeared very fierce.
This was a magical beast of the ninth rank – the Wildthunder Stormhawk.
The soldiers on the ship did not attempt to block it. Clearly, they recognized this Wildthunder Stormhawk, which flew directly towards and landed next to Delia and the others.
“Little Wind, did you catch anything?” Delia devotedly rubbed the head of the Wildthunder Stormhawk.
Retracting its wings, the Wildthunder Stormhawk stood up, rising to its full height of two meters high. Right now, the Wildthunder Stormhawk was enjoying Delia’s attention, closing its eyes as Delia continued stroking its head.
“Parry, get over here,” the big bear said unhappily.
The Wildthunder Stormhawk glanced at the big bear, then obediently moved over to it. The Worldbear was a Saint-level magical beast, and an extremely powerful type at that.
Actually, both the Worldbear as well as the Wildthunder Stormhawk were the magical beast companions of that middle-aged man, a Saint-level Grand Magus of the Yulan Empire, Longhaus.
Master Longhaus was a wind-style Grand Magus.
Wind-style Grand Magi were extremely terrifying. When Longhaus had brought his Wildthunder Stormhawk into the Mountain Range of the Setting Sun, he had used the Dimensional Edge spell to heavily injure this Worldbear.
The offensive power of the Dimensional Edge spell was simply too terrifying. It cut through the walls of reality itself.
Against this sort of attack, even a peak-stage Saint such as Haydson could be split into two halves. In addition, wind-style Grand Magi could control the wind to a terrifying degree, and could also move extremely quickly.
It could easily be said that, given enough time, a Grand Magus Saint could easily defeat a Saint-level warrior. But Saint-level warriors were no fools either. Thus, most Grand Magi Saints would work hard to acquire a Saint-level magical beast.
Alas, capturing Saint-level magical beasts was simply too difficult.
Delia stood atop the ship’s deck, fiddling with her necklace as she stared to the east. A gentle wind blew, stirring her hair. She was a very beautiful, moving sight. Even those warriors off to the side couldn’t help but stare at her and feel moved.
Delia had become extremely famous in the Yulan Empire. She was a genius who had reached the seventh rank as a magus at the young age of twenty-two. In addition, she had an extremely powerful clan behind her, and had been accepted as an apprentice by the Saint-level Grand Magus, Longhaus. In terms of appearance, she could definitely rank in the top ten of the imperial capital as well. Such a glorious, outstanding girl definitely had many suitors and paramours.
But unfortunately, Delia had refused every single one of them.
Because of her clan and because she had grown up in the imperial capital, Delia was extremely eloquent and very astute in judging the intentions of others. Ever since the news of Linley’s battle with Olivier had spread to the Yulan Empire, Delia had schemed nonstop, finally managing to convince the Emperor of the Yulan Empire to send a special envoy to the O’Brien Empire.
Before heading out, they had notified the O’Brien Empire, who had naturally agreed.
“Channe City…” Delia murmured.
That place which occupied her dreams had a person whom she longed for.
The river waters continued to rush forward rapidly. On the front deck, the Worldbear and the Wildthunder Stormhawk stood alongside Delia as the massive ship continued to sail forward at high speed.
Soon, the ship disappeared off into the horizon as it made its way through the Channe River.
The news that a special envoy from the Yulan Empire was coming quickly spread across the imperial capital, and the imperial clan as well as the nobles quickly learned of this as well. But as far as the imperial capital was concerned, they only cared about two things right now.
They only cared about two major duels.
The first duel was the duel that had just happened between the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier, and the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson. The second one was the duel that would occur three months from now between the Dragonblood Warrior, Linley, and the Monolithic Sword Saint, Haydson.
Would Linley learn from the mistakes of his predecessor, Olivier? Or would he come to the same disastrous end?
Nobody knew.
But in the hearts of the citizens of the Empire, most believed that the strongest Saint, Haydson, would gain victory yet again.
Boulder Street. Count Wharton’s estate.
“In the next three months, nobody is permitted to disturb Lord Linley unless there is something critical!” This declaration came forth from the manor ever since that stormy night.
The atmosphere in the estate was extremely tense.
In the rear training courtyard, Wharton trained for a short while. Then, not in the mood for more training, he placed the warblade ‘Slaughterer’ to one side, then sat down unhappily.
“That Haydson really goes too far,” Wharton cursed. As soon as he thought about Linley, he began to worry. “Haydson, if you are so tough, why don’t you wait ten years and let my Big Brother reach the Saint level in his human form before dueling with my Big Brother?! What’s the point of dueling now?”
“Fuck his granny. He doesn’t just go too far. He’s absolutely vile!”
Gates walked over, saying angrily, “There are plenty of Saints in the Empire, and the War God’s College has many experts as well. Why doesn’t Haydson go challenge them? Instead, he challenges his Lordship. His Lordship is only twenty-seven years old. That Haydson is several centuries old.”
“No point in cursing him.”
Barker walked over, resting his massive long-handled greataxe against the artificial hill. “His Lordship has already agreed to duel with Haydson. Right now, our only option is to hope that his Lordship will win.”
“His Lordship definitely will win.”
Gates clenched his fist and pumped it in the air several times as he said angrily, “I refuse to believe that Haydson’s internal organs are as defensively powerful as his external defense. What’s more, that weird thing which his Lordship developed a while ago seems to be really mysterious as well. It definitely must be extraordinary.”
Gates and the others didn’t really understand how powerful the Pulseguard Defense was.
Linley was within his private courtyard. Right now, he was seated in the meditative stance beneath a tree, constantly training in accordance with the ‘Secret Dragonblood Manual’. Right now, Linley already was at a very high level of understanding. All h
e needed was battle-qi.
Whenever Linley had any free time, he would train in battle-qi, trying to absorb as much of the energy from the dragonblood in his veins as possible, ideally until reaching the Saint level. However, training battle-qi actually didn’t require too much focus. As long as one trained in accordance with the set methods, that would be enough. Thus, right now, Linley was pondering other questions in his mind.
“Last time, when I encountered the War God’s first disciple, Fain, and when I encountered the War God, I found that they were both capable of soul-based attacks. Olivier also mastered such a form of attack. Most likely, there are many people who have mastered this type of technique. Should I also try to develop this sort of soul-based attack? Even if I don’t, I should at least learn how to defend against it, right?”
While cultivating his battle-qi, Linley continued to wrestle with this question in his mind.
What were the principles underlying soul-based attacks?
And how would one guard against it?
While Linley was thinking and training, Haeru lay resting against the ground, while Bebe was curled up comfortably on Haeru’s back, his eyes half-closed.
“Bebe, do you think Master will be able to beat that Haydson in their duel?” Haeru asked in a low voice.
“Naturally,” Bebe opened his eyes and said with complete confidence.
But then, Bebe said in a low voice, “But of course, that Haydson seems to be really powerful as well. But no matter what, if the Boss ends up at the point of death in his duel against Haydson, I, Bebe, will immediately charge forward to assist. Hrmph. Two nights ago, everyone just watched as Olivier was beaten half to death. He still hasn’t woken up yet. I can’t let the Boss succumb to such a state.”
“Isn’t that a breach of rules?” Haeru inquired questioningly.
Baruch Rising_Book 3 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 22