Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Haha, wonderful. Then tonight, let us…pay a visit.” Zassler’s laughed sinisterly, his eyes emitting a hint of green light.

  Linley nodded calmly.

  “Rebecca, Leena.” Linley raised his head to look at the two twins who had just walked in from the main hall. “Tonight, the two of you need to stay here. Don’t go anywhere.”

  “Understood.” Rebecca and Leena both nodded.

  Zassler laughed in the direction of the twins. “Do as I have taught you, and enter the meditative trance. In a few days, I will begin to commence the ‘Necromantic Initiation Rites’ for both of you.”

  After having been with them for a period of time, Zassler had made the determination that these two twins were highly suited for studying Necromantic Magic.

  In truth, the normal seven elements of magic (earth, fire, water, wind, lightning, light, darkness) all had fairly high requirements with regards to spiritual energy. But the higher level arts of Oracular Magic, Life Magic, and Necromantic Magic, had terrifyingly high requirements when it came to souls.

  Of these three types of magic, Necromantic Magic had the highest requirements with regards to spiritual purity and soul analysis. Comparatively speaking, it didn’t have much of a requirement with regards to elemental essence affinity.

  “Necromantic Initiation Rites?”

  Rebecca and Leena were both excited. This entire time, they had hoped they would be able to seek revenge for their parents, but they didn’t have any power. But after learning Necromantic Magic, they would have sufficient power.

  That night.

  “Haeru. Protect Rebecca and Leena.” Linley instructed.

  To deal with a minor figure like Perry was an extremely simple task. Linley and Zassler would be more than enough. With Bebe present as well, there would be no chance of failure at all.

  “Be careful.” Rebecca and Leena said.

  Zassler laughed weirdly. “In Basil, aside from McKenzie, there’s no one whom I or Linley need to be concerned with.”

  “Let’s go.” Linley said calmly.

  Both dressed in black, Linley and Zassler very quickly slipped out of the courtyard. The black-furred Bebe also stealthily followed the two, with none the wiser.

  In the dark night, Linley, Zassler, and Bebe were walking in an alleyway.

  “Huating Road must be ahead.” Linley’s memory was very good. Despite having a very complicated layout, Linley was able to totally memorize the layout after having walked through the city once. Linley, Zassler, and Bebe directly passed through the small alleyway and arrived at the outskirts of the walls to Count Perry’s manor.

  Staring at this ancient building, Zassler and Linley exchanged glances.

  “Zassler, you need to be certain.” Linley had never seen Count Perry before.

  “Don’t worry.” Zassler’s lips curled in a dark smile.

  Linley led Zassler forward as they jumped directly past the wall. With regards to how residences were generally laid out, Linley and Zassler both had a good general idea. Usually in front was the main hall, while the second building in the back was where the owner would sleep.

  But Zassler came to a stop in front of the second building as he began to mumble a magical incantation.

  A short while later…

  A grey smoke began to slowly drift towards the building. In a short while, the entire second building was covered by that grey fog. The fog continued to spread until it covered every single building in the residence. Watching this happen, Linley was puzzled.

  Linley took a sniff of the grey fog. As he did, he felt momentarily dizzy, but then instantly recovered.

  “What are you doing?” Linley said softly.

  “I’m just putting the weaker people here to sleep. Upon reaching the seventh rank, a person can use battle-qi to counteract this fog. Perry is a warrior of the eighth rank.” Zassler knew exactly how strong Perry was.

  “Who is it?!”

  An angry roar could be heard, as an old man and three middle-aged men ran out from the room. The leader stared icily at Linley and Zassler. But because of the grey mist, as well as the fact that it was late at night, they could not make out Linley or Zassler’s appearance.

  “Lord Count.” Three more voies rang out from the courtyard, as two more middle-aged men and a young man ran over.

  The Count had seven experts at his residence; five of the seventh rank, two of the eighth rank.

  “Who are you?” Count Perry barked.

  “Heh heh heh. Oh, Perry. You’ve forgotten me?” Zassler slowly walked forward, while two powerful, golden-furred zombies materialized out of nowhere.

  The mist began to thin, and Count Perry could now see him clearly.

  “It’s you.” Count Perry’s eyes bulged from their sockets. He knew exactly how powerful Zassler was. Even five or six experts of the ninth rank wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.

  Seeing Zassler appear, Perry understood that most likely, Lampson and his men had indeed met a violent end.

  “And you are?” Count Perry looked at Linley. Suddenly, he started.

  Linley’s appearance had long ago been distributed to every single one of the Radiant Church’s supervisors in foreign locations. Compared to three years ago, Linley’s hair was now a bit longer, yes, but his face hadn’t changed much.

  “You are Linley?” Perry was somewhat shocked.

  Linley smiled and nodded. “Count Perry, good eyesight. Zassler and I have quite a few things we’d like to discuss with you on this lovely night. Zassler, let’s move.”

  “Kill.” Zassler immediately barked.

  The two golden-furred zombies suddenly transformed into rays of golden light, charging at those other six men. Sudden screams of agony could be heard, as the zombies killed three of them in a blink of an eye, causing the other three to turn pale with fear.

  “Clang.” That young man chopped down with his sabre on the body of the golden-furred zombie, but the only effect was that his hand broke from the impact. Golden-furred zombies prided themselves on their defensive abilities.

  “Groooooowl.” With a low growl, the golden-furred zombie caved the young man’s head in with a single blow.

  “Bang!”

  A middle-aged man kicked viciously at a nearby boulder, sending enormous pieces of rock smashing towards the golden-furred zombie. But the zombie only charged at him, fast as lightning. Those pieces of rocks continued to fly at high speed at the zombie. “Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!” One rock after another smashed against the golden-furred zombie, and it didn’t block at all.

  Each rock contained thousands of pounds of force, but unfortunately, they did nothing to the golden-furred zombies.

  “Slash.”

  A black blur flashed by, and that middle-aged man fell to the floor in astonishment.

  “You’re too slow, you big oaf.” Bebe growled towards the golden-furred zombie, then jumped back onto Linley’s shoulders.

  The golden-furred zombie’s speed could be considered the speed of a normal combatant of the ninth rank. But compared to Bebe, there was a huge difference. After all, Bebe and Haeru were magical beasts of the ninth rank which specialized in speed.

  The six of them had been killed by the two golden-furred zombies and Bebe in the blink of an eye. Those zombies were, after all, undead of the ninth rank. Those people didn’t have a chance against them.

  Perry had silently maintained his composure the entire time.

  When he had been selected as the supervisor for this region by the Radiant Church, he had mentally prepared for such a day. Only, what he had expected was that he would be killed by the O’Brien Empire’s men. He didn’t expect that it would be Linley and Zassler who killed him.

  “Linley, it was you who killed Lampson’s men and rescued Zassler?” Perry questioned. Before dying, Perry wanted to indulge his curiosity.

  “Indeed.” Linley replied succinctly.

  Perry nodded and laughed. “You truly do live up to the name of bein
g one of the descendants of the Dragonblood Warrior clan. In three years, your power has grown so much. I hope you don’t expect to get anything out of me, however. I won’t answer your questions.” A hint of a holy light had appeared on Perry’s face.

  “Do you think that will do you any good?” Zassler sneered.

  “Seize him.” Zassler ordered coldly.

  The two golden-furred zombies charged at Perry at high speed, seizing him without giving him a chance to avoid.

  “Linley, help me stay on watch for a while. I am about to ‘Soulscour’ him. Zassler instructed Linley.

  Linley started.

  Soulscour? Linley had never heard of anyone being able to ‘Soulscour’ someone. Even the Radiant Church didn’t have the ability to search and scour a person’s soul. But necromancers, as practitioners of the type of magic that involved souls the most, naturally knew far more about souls than all other types of magi.

  “Soulscour?” Hearing this word, Perry was shocked as well. “Impossible.” He had never heard of a ‘Soulscour’ technique.

  “Haha. Even if you were to die right now, it would be too late.”

  Zassler walked in front of Perry. The five fingers of his wizened, chicken-claw like hand grabbed Perry’s head, while at the same time, Zassler’s eyes suddenly turned a deep green color.

  “Uhhhh…ahhhhh….” Perry’s body began to tremble violently, while at the same time, he began to let out agonized moans.

  Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 32, The Decision

  Although Perry was already over two hundred years old, as a warrior of the eighth rank, his body was still very sturdy. But after Zassler pierced his claws into his skull, Perry’s face and body began to turn ashen white, while at the same time, his body began to quiver violently, as though he were an extremely ill old man.

  Linley carefully watched this sight.

  “Soulscour.” This was the first time Linley had seen this sort of technique performed. As one of the three most powerful types of magi, necromancers did indeed have some terrifying abilities.

  After approximately two minutes had passed, Zassler’s green, glowing eyes returned to their normal color.

  Zassler glanced at the ashen faced Perry, letting out a sinister laugh, then released him. The two golden-furred zombies also released Perry. As for Perry, with his skull pierced by claws and his soul scoured, he was dead without a doubt. Like a pile of mud, he slumped to the floor and didn’t move again.

  “What do you think?” Zassler looked delightedly at Linley.

  An expert like Zassler generally wouldn’t feel pride upon seeing the astonishment and admiration of ordinary people. But during this period of time that he had spent with Linley, he had yet to do anything to make Linley truly admire him. After revealing this ability, Zassler was quite looking forward to seeing Linley’s amazed expression.

  Only the amazement of experts could satisfy Zassler’s vanity.

  “Very incredible.” Linley sighed in honest amazement.

  Souls were very amazing, mysterious things. They were the most fundamental component of a person, but people knew very little about souls. To recover a person’s memory from his soul was something which Linley, at least, couldn’t even begin to imagine doing.

  “Heh heh heh.” Zassler laughed delightedly, and then those two golden-furred zombies by his side disappeared, returning to their home in the undead realm.

  “Let’s go.”

  Linley urged.

  In the blink of an eye, Count Perry’s manor returned to its normal calm. By now, most people here remained unconscious, while the corpses of the experts just lay there on the floor.

  Within the private courtyard of their residence.

  Shutting the door to the main hall, Rebecca and Leena very obediently lit the lamps as Linley and Zassler began to chat.

  “What did you discover in Perry’s memories?” Linley said calmly.

  Zassler laughed delightedly as he looked at Linley. “Linley, in the past, I knew too little about you. I didn’t expect that you were such an incredible figure.”

  “What did you find out about big brother Ley?” Rebecca’s adorable, large eyes widened as she asked with curiosity.

  Zassler laughed, his white eyebrows jumping up and down. “Rebecca, Leena, your big brother Linley has quite a reputation in the Holy Union. His proficiency in stone sculpture is nearly on the same level as the likes of grandmasters such as Proulx. Do you know? When he was sixteen years old, he carved out a special sculpture. Can you guess how much that sculpture was worth?” Zassler asked, laughing.

  “Sculpture?”

  Rebecca and Leena glanced at each other.

  To them, sculptures were things that were very hard to make. To carve out a sculpture that was accurate and detailed was already hard enough, to say nothing of making it have a special aura.

  “How many gold coins?” Rebecca and Leena asked curiously.

  “Ten million gold coins!” Zassler announced.

  Zassler had actually gotten all of this information from Count Perry’s mind. Count Perry had received a ‘kill order’ from the Radiant Church regarding Linley. Naturally, this kill order had many details regarding Linley.

  “Ten million gold coins, for just a statue?” Rebecca and Leena’s mouths hung open, very wide.

  “Not just sculptures, by the way. Your big brother Linley’s talent as a magus, in the past, was the second best in history. But now, most likely in the entire history of the Yulan continent, he can be considered the number one genius. As for his talent as a warrior, you should already know.” Zassler sincerely admired Linley from the heart.

  Genius.

  Nobody would question that he was a genius. Linley’s performance had given testament to everything.

  Rebecca and Leena immediately looked towards Linley, their eyes filled with astonishment and worship.

  “Enough, Zassler.” Linley shook his head and laughed. “Enough of these bygone affairs. Tell me what you found in Perry’s mind.”

  Zassler nodded, dropping his smile.

  “Based on the information in Perry’s memory, the Radiant Church’s forces in the O’Brien Empire are fairly weak. They are all in hiding. They don’t dare to offend the War God, and thus in the O’Brien Empire, the Radiant Church has very few experts.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  “From Perry’s memories, I discovered the identities of the various supervisors throughout the Northwest Administrative Province for the Radiant Church. We now can definitely shatter their entire web of power in this area.” Zassler laughed evilly.

  Creation was hard. Destruction was easy.

  To place a group of people in an area without arousing suspicion was extremely hard.

  But to destroy this web of influence only required those people be killed.

  “And in the other provinces?” Linley asked.

  As far as Linley was concerned, just destroying their web of influence in this administrative province wasn’t enough. Only by destroying the entire operation of the Radiant Church in the O’Brien Empire would Linley be truly happy.

  “If we kill all of the general supervisors and some of the important supervisors in all seven provinces, the Radiant Church’s forces will be like a beheaded dragon. In addition, the Radiant Church’s force structure in these areas all hinge around a single line of communication. Once the general supervisor and supervisors are dead, most likely their entire web of influence will collapse.”

  The greater the blow to the Radiant Church, the happier Linley would be.

  Zassler shook his head. “Just like how each supervisor in each prefectural city only reports to Perry, Perry himself only reports to the general supervisor for the entire O’Brien Empire, or the Radiant Church’s headquarters.”

  “The general supervisor for the entire O’Brien Empire?” Linley’s eyes lit up.

  So in the O’Brien Empire, there was a highly ranked general supervisor for the Empire? I
f they could seize this person and Soulscour him, most likely they would learn even more.

  “Sadly, even Perry didn’t know who this person really is.” Zassler shook his head. “Perry only knew about a place he could go to exchange messages.”

  Linley nodded.

  But Zassler suddenly began to laugh. “But from Perry’s memories, I discovered another piece of interesting news.”

  “Speak.” Linley looked at Zassler.

  “The general supervisor of the O’Brien Empire issued an order. In roughly another month’s time, another squad of prisoner escorts will enter the Northwest Administrative Province. The general supervisor ordered Perry to carefully assist and welcome these people and make sure their secrets were kept.” Zassler’s lips split into a grin. “Per this order, it seems as though they place a very high importance on this squad. This squad isn’t the slightest bit less important than the one escorting me.”

  “Oh?” Linley’s eyes lit up.

  For this squad’s importance to be so high meant that the people they were escorting definitely weren’t ordinary figures.

  “Do you know where their first point of entry in the Northwest Administrative Province will be?” Linley asked.

  “It should be the prefectural city of Deco [De’ke]. Based on the initial planned trajectory, they won’t pass through the provincial capital.” Zassler said.

  Linley nodded. He could totally understand this. The provincial capital of Basil had the Saint-level expert McKenzie present. Naturally, their route had to avoid this place.

  “The prefectural city of Deco is roughly eight hundred kilometers away.” Zassler was quite familiar with the geography of the O’Brien Empire.

  Linley said coldly. “Eight hundred kilometers? If we rush, we can get there in a day.”

  If the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, were to run at maximum speed, he wouldn’t even need half a day. But running for so long meant that he wouldn’t be able to maintain maximum output the entire time.

  But if they ran at normal speeds and left in the morning, they definitely could reach there by nightfall.