Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Linley looked at Clayde as he spoke slowly.

  Clayde was beginning to be confused. He didn’t understand what any of this had to do with the so-called ‘important matter’ which Linley had mentioned. But as the ruler of the kingdom, Clayde showed a kingly poise and didn’t interrupt.

  “Your Majesty, I expect that you know that my clan, the Baruch clan, is also the clan of the Dragonblood Warriors.” A slightly proud look was on Linley’s face.

  “That’s right. One of the Four Supreme Warrior clans, the Dragonblood Warrior clan. This is an illustrious, ancient lineage.” Clayde sighed with praise.

  Linley shook his head. “We were only illustrious in the past. My clan had fallen so far that even our ancestral heirloom had been lost for hundreds of years. Each and every generation of Baruch clan leaders had desired to seize back this heirloom for centuries, but this never occurred. Your Majesty, when I was accepted by the Ernst Institute and left home, do you know what my father said to me the day I left?”

  “What did he say?” Clayde looked at Linley.

  “My father said, if in the future I do not bring back the ancestral heirloom of our clan, even in his death, he wouldn’t forgive me!” Linley’s body was trembling slightly.

  Clayde, Merritt, and even Ransome all stared in amazement. A father could actually say such a thing to his son? “Your father went a bit too far.” Clayde said.

  “No.”

  Linley shook his head solemnly. “I understand my father’s desire. My Dragonblood Warrior clan had been downtrodden for centuries, without a single truly powerful person appearing in all that time. My father understood that I would be the strongest person my clan had produced in centuries. Hundreds of years of hopes and desires all rested on my shoulders. Tell me, how could my father permit me to be a failure?” Clayde began to understand.

  “My father’s lifelong desire was to bring the warblade ‘Slaughterer’ back to the clan.” Linley’s voice was growing fierce. “At the Ernst Institute, I didn’t dare to slacken off in the slightest. I trained like mad. I always remembered my father’s wish, my father’s instructions!”

  Clayde and the others were beginning to understand Linley’s motivations.

  “Half a year ago, after I auctioned off ‘Awakening From the Dream’, I went back home, and that time, I brought the warblade ‘Slaughterer’ with me.” Linley’s voice rose to a higher timbre.

  Clayde, Ransome, and Merritt were stunned.

  Because they all knew that on that trip, Linley had found that his father had already passed away.

  “But when I excitedly returned home, I was welcomed by the news of my father’s death. Before he died, he didn’t have a chance to see the warblade, and I didn’t have a chance to see my father one last time either. All those years of hard work, my dream of making my father happy…unfortunately…” All the muscles on Linley’s face were twitching, and the expression on his face was terrifying to behold.

  Clayde and the others could all understand how Linley was feeling.

  “Linley, don’t be too heartbroken,” Clayde sighed.

  Linley sneered. “But, do you know why or how my father died?”

  Clayde, Merritt, and Ransome were all startled.

  “My father was killed, your Majesty, by your younger brother, Duke Patterson!!!!” Linley’s eyes began to turn red.

  “What?!” Clayde rose to his feet in shock. By his side, Merritt and Ransome were both stunned as well.

  “Therefore…I killed Patterson!” Linley’s voice was very sinister.

  At this point in time, Ransome was the first to feel that something was very wrong in this room. He vigilantly inched closer to Clayde, guarding against Linley’s actions. But suddenly, just at this moment, Ransome felt a gust of wind from behind. Ransome, a warrior of the eighth rank, knew that he wouldn’t have time to turn his head, and so his only choice was to swing his arm behind him in defense.

  “Crunch!”

  An incredibly painful feeling…and then, Ransome could no longer feel his arm’s existence. Only now did Ransome notice, from the corner of his eyes….

  A rat-like magical beast, nearly half a meter long, was standing beside him. Aside from noticing the rat’s blood-covered maw, Ransome also noticed its sharp claws moving extremely fast towards him. At such a close distance, Ransome didn’t have any chance of dodging at all.

  It was too fast!

  “Snick.”

  The sharp claws split apart Ransome’s throat. Ransome stared in astonishment, but gradually, the life faded away from his eyes.

  He simply couldn’t understand where this half-meter long rodent-type magical beast had come from. The first thing he had done when he had entered the room was to scan it carefully. He only noticed a small Shadowmouse on the ground which was the size of a man’s palm.

  Could a palm-sized Shadowmouse pose a threat?

  To a warrior of the eighth rank, not at all. Ransome thus wasn’t on his guard against it at all.

  And thus, being caught totally off-guard, this warrior of the eighth rank, Ransome, was easily killed by the Shadowmouse, Bebe. In truth, his death wasn’t too unjust. Given Bebe’s current power, even if Ransome had been able to fight him openly and fairly, he still probably wouldn’t have been able to hold on for too long.

  “Ransome.” Clayde and Merritt were both shocked.

  A stately warrior of the eighth rank died in one action. The two of them stared in shock at that Shadowmouse. Before their very eyes, Bebe’s body shrank down, returning to a fist-sized state, then leaping back onto Linley’s shoulders.

  “Bebe. Well done.” Linley rubbed Bebe’s little head.

  Bebe closed his eyes, luxuriating in the feeling.

  Linley turned his head to once more stare at Clayde. That cold look in his eyes made Clayde feel very uneasy.

  “Linley, what do you think you are doing?” Clayde barked coldly. At the same time, he began to activate the battle-qi in his body. But at that moment, Clayde suddenly felt that those wide open blood vessels in his body had suddenly been stopped up by something.

  Based on the dense battle-qi which Clayde possessed as a warrior of the ninth rank, in the past the flow of his battle-qi was as powerful and forceful as the crushing waves of the sea. But now, he was only able to forcibly activate a tiny amount of battle-qi, and sometimes the flow would break entirely. Right now, the amount of battle-qi available to Clayde was perhaps only one percent of what was normally available to him.

  “Your Majesty, don’t shout and don’t resist. If you resist, you die.” Linley said calmly.

  Clayde instantly realized what sort of situation he was now in.

  Right now, just based on his muscle power, he could perhaps compete against a warrior of the seventh rank. But that little Shadowmouse on Linley’s shoulders was capable of killing even a warrior of the eighth rank like Ransome in a flash.

  Clayde didn’t doubt in the slightest that Linley and his little Shadowmouse had the power to kill him in an instant.

  “Linley, how dare you! You dare to attempt to assassinate his Majesty?” Terrified out of his mind, Merritt shouted.

  “Shut your mouth.” Linley cast a frozen glance at Merritt.

  Merritt’s muscle strength wasn’t that powerful. Now that he was virtually totally unable to activate his battle-qi, he could perhaps be comparable at most to a normal warrior of the fourth rank.

  Merritt quickly understood the situation as well. Not daring to shout at Linley, he still tried to persuade him. “Linley, you have a great future and lots of potential. In the future, you’ll be a high-level official within the Radiant Church, and perhaps one day you’ll even be the next Holy Emperor. Why must you destroy your future prospects? Linley, I trust that his Majesty won’t blame you for having killed Patterson. He brought calamity upon himself when he acted against your father.” As he spoke, Merritt glanced at Clayde.

  Clayde nodded as well. “Linley, I am willing to pretend that nothing happened to
day. As for Patterson, he’s already dead.”

  “Linley, his Majesty has already spoken. Don’t act too rashly.” Merritt hurriedly said.

  “Shut your mouth!” Linley suddenly stretched his arm out.

  Like iron claws, Linley’s right hand stretched out and grabbed Merritt by the throat, suddenly raising him up in the air.

  “Ah! Ah! Ah!” Merritt stared at Linley, terrified, gurgling out his pleas.

  “Linley.” Clayde immediately called out.

  But with a cold laugh, Linley flexed his fingers, and then let his hand relax.

  “Crunch!” With a snapping sound, Merritt fell to the floor. He grabbed his throat, just barely managing to force out an ‘ah’ ‘ah’ sound. In the moments just before his death, he still couldn’t believe what had happened. He had come to visit today alongside King Clayde, and yet, this was the result.

  As he died, Merritt’s life began to flash before his eyes. The last thing he thought of…was a woman.

  “If I had known that I would die in Linley’s hands, then…that day…I shouldn’t have let Alice slip through my fingers.” This was the last thought Merritt ever had.

  Linley was smiling coldly at Clayde.

  “Linley, why are you acting against me? I seem to have treated you quite well.” Clayde looked at Linley, but at this moment, Clayde was hoping to himself: “Snow Lion, bring someone, quick, quick!” As a warrior of the ninth rank, Clayde had a magical beast companion of his own.

  The Snow Lion was a Glacial Snow Lion, an eighth-ranked magical beast who came from the far north. Generally speaking, it would remain in the palace.

  Because of the soul-binding contract which bound them, the minds of the Snow Lion and Clayde were linked. Thus, the Snow Lion immediately knew that Clayde had been a victim of an ambush. Clayde knew very well that right now…his priority was to delay, delay as long as he could!

  “True, you have treated me well! But what about my mother?” Linley stared death at Clayde.

  If it hadn’t been for the fact that in the past, Clayde had ordered the abduction of Linley’s mother, Linley’s father would still be alive, and his mother would be at home as well. His parents would still be alive! But because of Clayde’s actions, he had lost both parents.

  “Mother? Didn’t your mother die in childbirth?” Clayde didn’t understand.

  “Die in childbirth?” Linley laughed loudly, his voice wild. And then he stared coldly at Clayde. “That was just a cover story that we made up. Clayde, after my mother gave birth to my little brother, my father and her went to the Radiant Temple to pray. But that night, upon returning to their hotel, they were attacked and my mother was captured.”

  “Clayde, could it be that you have forgotten that twelve years ago, you ordered Patterson to have kidnappers abduct my mother?” Linley stared coldly at Clayde. “Don’t deny it. Patterson has already told me everything.”

  “That…that was your mother?!” Clayde was totally shocked.

  “What, you remember now?” Linley’s eyes were boiling with fury. “Tell me. What happened to my mother? Tell me, is she alive, or is she dead?”

  Clayde said calmly, “Your mother, I handed over to another person. You can’t afford to offend that person. Neither can I.”

  “Another person?” Linley totally didn’t understand.

  But at the same time, Linley felt a thread of hope in his heart. A person that even Clayde couldn’t afford to offend had abducted his mother. There had to be an important reason behind it. Perhaps…his mother was still alive.

  Clayde laughed coldly. “But I can tell you one thing. Your mother is dead. Without question, she is dead!”

  “No…” Linley stared.

  “You don’t believe me?” Despite the situation he was in, Clayde began to laugh.

  Book 6, The Road to Revenge – Chapter 29, Kill However Many Come!

  Within the palace.

  The Glacial Snow Lion which Clayde had tamed had ten or so servants dedicated solely to his maintenance. After having tended him for so long, the Glacial Snow Lion’s attendants could already guess what the Glacial Snow Lion was saying when it roared.

  “Where’s the Snow Lion?” A white-robed male palace attendant said in a high-pitched voice.

  “Milord, the Snow Lion is currently asleep.” One of the Glacial Snow Lion’s attendants said respectfully.

  “Mm.” The palace attendant nodded arrogantly.

  “Roar! Roar!” Suddenly, a series of ferocious roars could be heard. The roars sounded frantic and worried.

  Hearing the sound, the face of the attendant responsible for tending the Glacial Snow Lion instantly changed. The white-robed palace attendant was even more worried. He asked, “What’s going on? What’s wrong with the Snow Lion?”

  Roaring furiously, the Snow Lion quickly charged forwards to them.

  “His Majesty, his Majesty is in danger!” The servant charged with tending the Snow Lion was frantic. “Quick! Ten years ago, this happened once as well. His Majesty must be in grave danger! Quick, quick, go protect his Majesty! Milord, where is his Majesty right now?”

  The expression on the face of the white-robed palace attendant changed as well. “His Majesty, his Majesty left the palace. Right. He went to Lord Linley’s manor.”

  “Quick, quick, go protect his Majesty!” The attendant bellowed.

  At the same time, the attendant directly leapt onto the Snow Lion’s back. After having spent every day feeding the Snow Lion, the creature held very little animosity towards him and was willing to let him ride atop itself. Just at this moment, five shadows suddenly flew over as well. These were five of the top experts of the palace.

  “Snow Lion, is his Majesty in danger?” A golden-haired middle-aged man barked out to the Glacial Snow Lion.

  The Snow Lion continued to bellow while nodding at the same time.

  “Quick, to Lord Linley’s manor. His Majesty is there.” A jade-haired expert quickly said.

  “Fourth Bro, you go find Lord Kaiser [Kai’sa].” The golden-haired middle-aged man shouted.

  Lord Kaiser was the leader of these experts, and one of the most powerful combatants of the Kingdom of Fenlai. There were only a total of two combatants of the ninth level who had pledged loyalty to the Kingdom of Fenlai, with one being King Clayde himself, and the other being this Lord Kaiser.

  Because of Lord Kaiser’s high status, there was no need for him to live long-term in the palace.

  “Yes, Second Bro! You go protect his Majesty. I’ll find Lord Kaiser.” The jade-haired man immediately sped off.

  “Snow Lion, let’s go.”

  The four of them immediately sped off with the Snow Lion in the direction of Linley’s manor.

  Within Linley’s manor. Right now, within Linley’s ‘recuperation’ courtyard, aside from two corpses, only Linley and Clayde were present.

  “No…how do you know that my mother is dead? Didn’t you say you gave my mother to another person, a person even you dared not offend? I don’t believe that a person like that would abduct my mother just for the purpose of killing her.” Linley refused to believe it.

  His father was already dead. Linley didn’t want for his mother to be dead as well.

  Deep in his heart, Linley thirsted for his family to be alive!

  “Haha…” Clayde began to laugh while looking at Linley with pity in his eyes. “Linley, I can tell you clearly, right now, that person didn’t instruct me to abduct your mother for him. I did it on my own initiative, abducting your mother, then gifting her to him. Because I knew…he really needed women like her.”

  “And I also know very well that in the past, this lord had acquired quite a few women like your mother. And all of them, without exception. Perished.” A hint of mad laughter was in Clayde’s eyes.

  Linley seemed to have been hit by a bolt of lightning. His body swayed.

  “Without exception?” Linley stared at Clayde.

  Clayde looked at Linley with pity in his eyes. “Li
nley, you should’ve had an extremely resplendent future. But you insisted on choosing this path. Since you’ve already chosen this path, your future has now been determined as well.”

  “Haha…..hahahahahahahaha!” Linley suddenly began to laugh loudly, all of the muscles on his face twitching.

  Linley stared at Clayde with eyes like death. “Clayde. It was you. You were the one who harmed my mother, and in the end caused my father to die. If it wasn’t for you, I probably would be enjoying a wonderful life with my parents right now. It was you. It was all you. It was you who ruined–”

  Linley’s hand stretched out, grabbing a straight chisel by his side.

  “What are you planning to do?” Clayde stared at Linley with his tiger-like eyes.

  “What am I going to do?” Linley stared at the straight chisel in his hands. “In the past, I always engaged in stone sculpting. But today…I want to try flesh sculpting.” Linley’s eyes had already begun to turn a dark, gold color, just like those eyes of the Armored Razorback Wyrm. Heartless. Cold!

  Within the Coiling Dragon ring, Doehring Cowart continued to maintain his silence.

  Having watched Linley grow up, Doehring Cowart understood Linley very well.

  Linley deeply valued his family and his bros. For the sake of his family and his bros, Linley wouldn’t fear death. Right now, the man responsible for the deaths of his mother and father were right in front of him. It was impossible for Linley to remain calm at a time like this.

  “Flesh sculpting?” Clayde was startled. Linley’s gaze was fierce, and he carefully inspected Clayde’s entire body. “Don’t worry. You have such a strong, powerful body. I am confident that I will be able to slice you a thousand times before I let you die, as a woman.” Linley’s voice was freezing cold, and the murderous aura rolled from him in waves.

  “You!” Clayde’s face turned icy cold as well, and he viciously snarled, “Linley, I will definitely kill you and let you reunite with your two unfortunate parents.”