Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Merritt looked at Alice.

  He really had been enchanted by Alice, but Merritt knew very well that Linley’s relationship with Alice was very special. Just from looking at that sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’, one could tell how deep Linley’s affection for Alice had been.

  “Linley’s feelings towards Alice really were in the realm of true love. If Linley were to find out…” Merritt’s head began to hurt.

  Linley.

  Very hard to deal with!

  The current Linley already possessed incredible influence. Although he, Merritt, was powerful, in the end he was only the Right Premier of a single kingdom. To the Radiant Church, perhaps deposing one of the rulers of a kingdom was something it would do only after serious consideration, but they wouldn’t even think twice before dealing with the Right Premier of a kingdom.

  All Linley had to do was to ask the Radiant Church for their assistance. Dealing with him, a Right Premier, wouldn’t be a problem.

  But in the future, Linley would only be more formidable. This was one of the reasons why not a single member of the nobles of the Kingdom of Fenlai had dared to plot against Linley or make attempts against Linley’s life, which was why, in front of Linley, they all behaved so courteously.

  “Alas…” Merritt let out a long sigh. “Alice, I really, truly, have fallen for you from the depths of my heart, so much so that I lost my sense of rationality.”

  Merritt smiled apologetically at Alice. “I apologize. I’ve come back to my senses now. Since you aren’t willing or able to have feelings for me, of course I cannot force myself on.”

  “Lord Merritt, I’ll take my leave, then.” Alice quickly scurried to the door, opened it, then rushed out.

  Seeing Alice depart, the apologetic look dropped from Merritt’s face, and his gaze grew vicious and cold. With a cold sneer, he spat out the word, “Bitch!”

  By the time Alice had returned to the Debs clan manor, it was now totally dark.

  Right now, all of the members of the Debs clan were in the middle of the main hall, eating dinner. Only, the atmosphere wasn’t very good. The clan could be exterminated at any time, after all.

  “Alice. You returned?” Rowling suddenly saw Alice running inside.

  Nimitz and the others all stood up as well.

  “As fast as that?” Nimitz frowned. Alice had come back far too early, much earlier than he had expected.

  “Alice, eat dinner with us.” Rowling immediately called to her.

  On the walkway past the main hall, Alice glanced at the people inside and said apologetically, “I’m not feeling well. I’ll go back to my room and rest first.” Alice’s voice was very low and hoarse.

  Rowling felt that Alice wasn’t acting normally.

  “Let me go see how Alice is doing.” Rowling smiled at everyone, then left the hall, leaving behind Nimitz, who was frowning with suspicion.

  Alice and Rowling, in their room.

  Upon entering the room, Alice had immediately thrown herself into her bed. She could no longer hold back her tears, which poured out. Her heart was filled with wrongs and injustices.

  “What did I do wrong? Lord, why must you punish me so?”

  Alice was howling with rage in her heart.

  “I never asked for much, only that I could have a simple, peaceful life. I want my parents to have a peaceful life, for myself to have a peaceful life. Why, why must you punish me so?” Alice’s heart was filled with misery. True, the Debs clan perhaps was going to be finished.

  But what did that have to do with her?

  Why did they have to send her to deal with Merritt?

  Why did she have to be forced to the point where she had to shout out the words, “I once was Linley’s woman?” How difficult had it been for her to force these words out! Alice truly hadn’t wanted to say that!

  “Big sister Alice, what happened?” Rowling ran into the room. Seeing Alice sobbing to the point where there was a huge wet spot on the bed, Rowling grew frantic with worry.

  Rowling immediately went over and began to stroke Alice’s back. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Whatever it is, you can tell me. Tell me.”

  Alice immediately turned and threw herself into Rowling’s arms, bawling even fiercerly. It wasn’t as bad without anyone there to comfort her, but now that someone had come, Alice felt all the more aggrieved and wronged.

  Rowling comforted Alice for more than half an hour before Alice finally became somewhat calmer.

  “Big sister Alice, what exactly happened? Tell me.” Rowling looked at Alice.

  Alice took a deep breath, then slowly explained the injustice that had been done to her. “Little Rowling, you are also aware of the current situation with the Debs clan. Yesterday, Second Granduncle came and wanted to have a private chat with me. He wanted me to…”

  The more she heard, the more fury Rowling felt.

  She was angry at Nimitz’s behavior. She was angry for what Alice had suffered. And she felt rage towards that beast-like Merritt’s behavior. At the same time, she felt sympathy for Alice.

  “I don’t want to get involved, get involved anymore. I just want to live out a peaceful life.” Alice said, sobbing sporadically.

  Over these past few days, Rowling had been considering what the best way to help the Debs clan was. But upon hearing Alice’s story, she suddenly understood a few things.

  “Big sister Alice, don’t be sad. No matter what, you definitely cannot let that Merritt destroy your chastity.” Rowling comforted her.

  Alice nodded.

  “But we still have to come up with a way to save Kalan and the others.” Rowling said. “Big brother Kalan is our fiancé, after all.”

  Alice also wanted to save him, but she didn’t know how.

  “We still have an option.” Rowling looked at Alice. “But…I don’t know if you would be willing to take it, sister Alice.”

  “Rowling…” Looking at Rowling, Alice had already guessed what she was going to say.

  Rowling nodded. “Right. Go ask Linley for help. Today, as soon as you mentioned his name, that Merritt no longer dared to touch you. Clearly, Linley is extremely influential. Based on what I know, not only does Linley have a relationship with the Radiant Church, he also has a relationship with the Dawson Conglomerate. Even his Majesty, King Clayde, treats Linley as he would a friend, rather than an ordinary subject. If Linley is willing to speak out, we would have a much greater chance of rescuing big brother Kalan.”

  Currently, in the Kingdom of Fenlai, without question, people were more willing to defer to Linley than to anyone else.

  Even the Left Premier and the Right Premier couldn’t compare with him.

  Because, as one could easily tell, in the future Linley would be a high level person within the Radiant Church. Even right now, he was viewed as an extremely important potential talent who needed to be cultivated and trained. For the sake of Linley, those two Cardinals of the Radiant Church had even gone to Hogg’s funeral and paid their respects to him. From this, one could easily see how important they viewed Linley as being.

  “Big brother Linley?” Alice’s emotions were very mixed.

  In truth, in Alice’s heart, she knew this was a possibility long ago, but she didn’t want to confront it. She truly didn’t wish to go beg Linley. She felt that she didn’t have the face to see him again.

  She knew that she had wounded Linley too heavily. That moment when she had seen that sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’, Alice understood how deeply Linley loved her. Or at least, how deeply he had once loved her.

  She was ashamed to meet him!

  “Big sister Alice, I understand your feelings.” Rowling tightly gripped Alice by the hands. “But, big sister Alice, big brother Kalan and his father are very likely to lose their lives. I beg you, please just suffer a bit on our behalf. At least Linley won’t act the way that Merritt did.”

  Alice’s heart was filled with pain.

  “No face? Is my self-respect more imp
ortant, or are the lives of big brother Kalan and his father more important?” Alice asked herself this question. She had no other choice.

  “Big sister Alice.” Rowling stared beseechingly at Alice.

  Alice took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Looking at Rowling, she nodded. “Alright. I’ll go see big brother Linley tomorrow.”

  Book 6, The Road to Revenge – Chapter 17, The Plea

  At the manor of the Prime Court Magus. Within the Hot Springs Garden.

  An earthen glow emanated from a patch of grass within the Hot Springs Garden. Earth-style magic – Supergravity Field. Right now, Linley was dressed only in a pair of long pants, his upper body bare as he trained in the grass.

  Those muscles on his bare upper body rippled like water. There wasn’t a trace of excess flesh. Right now, Linley’s body, organs, veins, and arteries were all being forced to withstand a gravity four times stronger than normal.

  Fortunately, after becoming a Dragonblood Warrior, Linley’s body had reached new heights in power.

  Linley’s legs were arched in a bow-drawing stance, and his two hands were raised parallel by his sides, each holding up a giant boulder. Each of these boulders weighed over a hundred pounds. Under the quadruple gravity field, the two combined weighed nearly a thousand pounds.

  His legs as taut as steel cables, Linley’s body was as straight as a quill. His gaze, fixed in front of him, didn’t waver either.

  One drop of sweat after another rolled down Linley’s body, covering his entire body in sweat. But Linley persevered….

  Despite being designated the Prime Court Magus for the kingdom, Linley continued to train non-stop every day. His guards stood solemnly outside, alongside two female attendants who were ready to answer Linley’s call at any moment. The door to the Hot Springs Garden, however, was closed.

  Whenever Linley was training, no one was permitted to enter.

  Once, his majesty King Clayde, ruler of Fenlai, had come to the manor. The palace attendant ignored the guards at the Hot Springs Garden and charged in directly, instructing Linley to meet with his Majesty. Linley immediately issued an order for that attendant to receive twenty strikes of the military rod. That physically weak attendant ended up being beaten to death.

  But afterwards, King Clayde didn’t blame Linley in the slightest. On the contrary, he berated his subordinates, telling them that while at the Hot Springs Garden, they absolutely must obey Linley’s rules.

  “Lord Linley always is so hard-working when he trains. He’s spent an entire day in there. When he’s not engaging in warrior training, he is engaging in magus training. I think the only time he ever rests is the time he spends in his stonesculpting.” One female attendant said in a low voice. The other female attendant also nodded. “I’ve never seen such a hard-working noble before. In the previous household I worked for, the instructor for the warriors himself only spent four hours a day training.”

  The nearby guardian knights of the Radiant Church also felt a great deal of admiration for Linley. Most geniuses, after their initial glory, would begin to fall behind. Each year, the Radiant Church would train a good number of geniuses. However, not only were none of those geniuses as outstanding as Linley, once their status had risen, they would become totally distracted by the material pleasures of the world and fall behind.

  “If Lord Linley continues like this, in all likelihood, he will be the youngest combatant of the ninth rank in history, and the youngest Saint-level in history as well.” One of the guardian knights said softly.

  The other guardian knight also nodded.

  All of these people very much admired Linley’s painstaking diligence in training.

  Only….“Lord Linley is a bit too strict and severe.” One of the female attendants said in an unhappy voice.

  In their hearts, Linley was handsome, young, had high standards for himself, and powerful. He had a future! A person like him could be considered to be all but perfect. Only, he was extremely severe towards others. Even when dealing with female servants like them, he didn’t act with any gentleness or affection.

  What these people didn’t know was that although Linley did engage in stonesculpting, he wasn’t really resting; when he was stonesculpting, he was increasing his spiritual energy at the fastest rate possible! Linley’s was increasing his power at every moment!

  Within the Hot Springs Garden.

  “Whew.”

  An hour of warrior’s training had come to an end. Linley began to activate the Dragonblood battle-qi in his body, and that tired, weary feeling disappeared. From a nearby box, Linley withdrew a straight chisel, then walked over to one of those two boulders he had dropped onto the grass. These were used by Linley when stonesculpting.

  Staring at these boulders and their internal lines and structure, Linley began to mentally design a sculpture. In the blink of an eye, a mental image of a warrior’s face was formed.

  A hint of a smile on his face, the straight chisel in Linley’s hand began to move.

  In a very rhythmic pattern, the straight chisel flew and chopped about, causing shattered bits of stone to fly everywhere. Linley knew exactly what he was doing, and so each chop was made with absolute confidence, and the strength he used was just right.

  What a wonderful feeling!

  Linley’s spirit became submerged within the ebbs and vibrations of the surrounding earth elemental essence, allowing him to sense the lines and cracks of the stone. Linley’s spirit also submerged into the surrounding wind elemental essence, allowing every single stroke of the knife to reach the peak of perfection in accuracy.

  Nature!

  Linley’s soul had become one with nature, and like a benevolent mother, nature surrounded Linley’s soul, allowing it to grow, to strengthen.

  “Whew.”

  Letting out a breath, Linley withdrew his straight chisel.

  After spending two hours, this giant boulder had been transformed into a rough outline. As for the fine details, Linley planned to finish those tomorrow. Every day, Linley set limits on how much time he could spend on his stonesculpting.

  He had to use the right complement of training regimes to achieve the maximum effect in terms of raising his power!

  Training started every day at five in the morning, while now, it was eight o’clock. It was time for Linley to eat breakfast.

  Putting down his straight chisel, Linley stepped out of his pants and into the hot springs pool. Lying within the hot springs, feeling the hot springs water rush against his muscles, Linley closed his eyes comfortably, finally allowing himself some time to rest.

  “Enter.” Linley suddenly shouted.

  Those two female attendants who had been quietly standing outside the door this entire time immediately entered with two trays. Those round trays were covered with all sorts of delicacies and fruits.

  “Lord Linley.” Those two female attendants put the two round trays down on the nearby table, then respectfully awaited Linley’s commands.

  While obediently standing to the side, those two female attendants couldn’t help but sneak peeks at Linley. Linley’s naked, muscular, reclining male body was indeed a source of fascination to them.

  “You can go for now.”

  Linley said calmly.

  “Yes, milord.” The two female attendants immediately left respectfully.

  From start to finish, Linley had not glanced at them even once.

  Next, Linley stepped out of the pool, put on a set of clean underwear and clothes, then sat on a chair and began to eat breakfast.

  “Swish.” A black shadow rushed out from the faraway grassy fields. It was Bebe. Before this, when Linley was training and stonesculpting, Bebe was napping.

  “Boss, it’s time for breakfast, eh? Alright, this big piece of roast meat is mine.” Bebe’s eyes instantly were drawn to a particular large piece of roasted magical beast meat.”

  Linley chuckled.

  “Grandpa Doehring, do we really have no method available t
o us to deal with that Clayde at present?” Linley mentally said to Doehring Cowart.

  Doehring Cowart flew out of the Coiling Dragon ring. Seating himself on another chair, he smiled at Linley. “Linley. Clayde is a warrior of the ninth rank. The gap between the two of you is too vast. Even if you assume the complete Dragonform, you are only a warrior of the early-stage eighth rank. Oh, wait, now that you are currently a late-stage warrior of the sixth rank, when you assume the Dragonform, you can be considered to be a late-stage warrior of the eighth rank. But nonetheless, you are far from being a match for Clayde.”

  Linley felt very unwilling to accept this. He knew, now, that the person who had instructed his mother to be abducted by Duke Patterson was King Clayde. But right now, he had no chance of dealing with Clayde at all.

  “The only choice I have is to continue training hard.” Linley unconsciously balled his fists, with the fork in his hands warping from his strength.

  In the early ranks, the extra boost provided by the Dragonform transformation was especially large. As a warrior of the late-stage sixth rank, based on his current training regime, in about half a year, there was hope for Linley to reach the seventh rank. Upon reaching the seventh rank of power, when using the Dragonform, Linley would be able to step into the early-stage ninth rank.

  “Lord Linley.” The voice of a female attendant could be heard from outside.

  “Come in.” Linley said calmly.

  Only now did the female attendant rush in. Respectfully, she said, “Lord Linley, outside, there’s a young lady named Alice who wishes to meet you.”

  “Alice?” Linley’s eyelids flickered. He looked at the female attendant. “Bring her to the guest hall. I will be there shortly.” Linley stood up as he spoke.

  “Yes, Lord Linley.” The female attendant didn’t dare to tease Linley in the slightest. They all knew how legendarily severe Linley was with his subordinates.

  ……

  Alice was clutching a glass of water, seeming very ill at ease. For her to come beg Linley was asking a lot of her. But she had no other choice.