Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Linley stood in front of everyone, sword in hand, staring coldly at Stehle.

  This tactic was the only option available to him. Faced with a Saint-level’s speed, he had no place to run. His only option was to remain in the Supergravity Field. Only then did he have a chance at life.

  “Whoosh!”

  Stehle suddenly shot towards Linley like a released arrow, his black robe slightly fluttering with the wind. However, that longsword of his, covered in golden light, chopped towards Linley at a very ordinary speed.

  But once he struck out with his sword, a cold aura seemed to pervade the entire courtyard.

  Linley instantly felt as though he had entered a frozen realm. He had been totally surrounded by that freezing aura, while at the same time, the entire area seemed to have been locked by that aura. Although that sword was moving at an ordinary speed, it chopped towards Linley with an irresistible force.

  The ‘impose’ level!

  “Hrmph.” Slowly yet inexorably, the adamantine heavy sword in Linley’s hands began to move.

  Stehle’s eyes suddenly brightened.

  “Slash!” His ice-cold longsword suddenly split the air, increasing in speed tenfold. In the blink of an eye, it arrived near Linley’s body.

  Linley’s adamantine heavy sword was like a fish in water, agilely gliding through the air to block the ice-cold longsword.

  One was fast. The other, slow.

  But the strange thing was, the two swords intersected.

  “Ruuuumble.” There were no other sounds when the adamantine heavy sword and the ice-cold longsword struck each other. Only, the air itself suddenly shuddered. Linley’s dark golden eyes continued to stare coldly at the opponent.

  Profound Truths of the Earth – Triple Layered Waves!

  Stehle only sensed a strange vibration being transmitted to him, as though three deep, powerful attacks were viciously attacking his heart.

  “Booom!”

  A terrifying noise exploded forth from Stehle as his silver battle-qi wildly exploded forth in all directions from Stehle’s body. Every single ray of battle-qi easily shot through the surrounding buildings like needles.

  “Careful!” Linley roared loudly, immediately allowing the Dragonblood battle-qi in his own body to explode forth as well, frantically trying to block that omnidirectional blast of silvery battle-qi, so as to protect the five Barker siblings behind him. But despite doing so, he wasn’t able to totally protect everyone, as several strands of silvery battle-qi still struck the five brothers on their bodies. “Slash!” Several dozen bloody lines were drawn on their bodies, but the five brothers had managed to survive.

  “What astonishing defense.” Linley sighed in amazement.

  Fortunately, Stehle had only accidentally exploded his battle-qi, resulting it in going in every which way. This was the only reason why the Barker siblings had not lost their lives, despite them being criss-crossed with bloody lines and wounds.

  As for Zassler, in front of him was a lance-wielding knight who was wearing a suit of heavy black armor. This was the ‘Black Knight Captain’, one of the three primary peak-stage undead of the ninth rank under his command.

  “Boom!”

  The walls nearby all collapsed, and even the nearby manors were impacted by the vibrations. Some people were literally shaken to death by that omnidirectional blast of Saint-level battle-qi.

  “Ah!”

  “Help!”

  The nearby folks all began to scream in panic. An explosion such as this woke up quite a few people in the prefectural city of Deco as well, and all the nearby citizens began to flee their houses.

  Linley’s group only stared solemnly at the mid-air Stehle.

  A small hint of blood could be seen at the corner of Stehle’s lips. Stehle wiped the blood off, and then stared at Linley in amazement. Finally, he sighed, “Linley, I didn’t expect that you have already surpassed the level of utilizing the force of the heavens and the earth. Admirable, truly admirable.”

  Utilizing the force of the heavens and the earth was what was known as ‘impose’. This was the level which ordinary Saint-levels reached.

  “He received this attack of mine without any preparation, and yet he wasn’t heavily wounded.” Linley’s heart had grown cold.

  Stehle stared at Linley. He sighed, “Linley, I really feel that it is a pity. The current level of insight and understanding you have reached is roughly on par with most peak-stage Saint-level combatants. Generally speaking, the reason that most peak-stage ninth ranks are unable to break through to the Saint-level is because their insights and level of understanding is insufficient. But for you, the opposite is true; you possess a very high level of understanding, but your battle-qi is far from being sufficient.

  Linley himself understood this logic as well.

  “For a genius such as you to die like this really is a pity.”

  Stele’s eyes began to grow sharp and fierce again. In a cold voice, he said, “Linley, so as to show my respect for you, I will use my most powerful attack to deal with you; the Ice-Bound World.”

  “Actually, did you really think this Supergravity Field could affect me?” Stehle sneered, and then his body began to radiate a terrifying silver light. Stehle seemed to have transformed into the sun itself as his silvery light easily encompassed an area of several hundred square meters.

  “My Supergravity Field?” Linley found, to his astonishment, that the earth elemental essence he had used to create the Supergravity Field had been totally wiped away by that silvery light.

  Within several hundred meters, the area was the absolute domain of that silvery light.

  “A twenty one year old could actually reach such a level.” Stehle continually sighed as well. Many people wouldn’t be able to enter the Saint-level despite working at it for hundreds of years. But Linley?

  He was only twenty one, and yet he was at such a high level of understanding.

  “Bebe, Haeru, get ready to flee.” Linley transmitted mentally.

  “Boss.” Bebe began to grow anxious.

  “Don’t dawdle!” Linley mentally roared angrily.

  Bebe and Haeru roared with fury, but they had no choice either. Right now, neither the five Barker brothers nor Zassler knew what to say.

  Linley stood in front of all of them, staring at Stehle.

  “My only choice is to use the higher levels of the Profound Truths of the Earth, which I haven’t truly mastered yet.” Linley’s dark golden eyes were fixed on his opponent’s. His adamantine heavy sword was in his hands.

  The ‘Triple Layered Waves’ of the Profound Truths of the Earth was only the basics.

  This most basic ‘Triple Layered Waves’, Linley was able to unleash with a 100% success right now. As for the higher level attacks, Linley was much less confident. But right now, he had no choice but to give it a shot.

  “Aside from the Profound Truths of the Earth, I also have that other, dangerous technique.” Linley’s eyes slowly began to turn red.

  “Groooooowl!”

  Linley hunched over. Suddenly, his dragon-scale covered legs kicked off the ground, blasting his body upwards like an enormous boulder from a catapult, smashing viciously towards the mid-air Stehle.

  “Go back down.” Stehle coldly swung his sword down at Linley.

  “Ah!!!!” Linley suddenly howled. The adamantine heavy sword in his right hand chopped viciously at Stehle with boundless strength and fury, while at the same time, his left hand flashed with a beautiful violet light.

  The divine artifact – Bloodviolet Godsword.

  The same moment he had drawn Bloodviolet, Linley had sent his spiritual energy into it, activating its terrifying, baleful presence. The entirety of Bloodviolet was now totally covered by that bloody red light.

  “Bam!”

  With Linley at the center, a surge of red, baleful light enveloped Linley. Even people hundreds of meters away began to scream in terror, and even the five Barker siblings were so terrified that they
started quivering.

  “Ah!!!”

  Even Zassler’s heart was also filled with fear. From a distance, people who saw Linley in the air, surrounded by that baleful red aura, all felt that he definitely must be a fiendish god whom they dared not rebel against.

  As for Stehle, who was closest to Linley?

  Stehle only felt a terrifying baleful aura completely envelope him. This baleful aura was even more terrifying than the aura which had been given off by Dylin, the King of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. That dense baleful aura entered his body, striking directly at his mind and soul.

  “Kill!”

  “Kill!”

  Strange voices chanted nonstop in his mind.

  Stehle felt as though he had returned to his youth, when he was a young beggar. He felt the same unbounded terror he had then, when each day he would be whipped by the leader of those men.

  But the hearts of Saint-level combatants were extremely resolute.

  “Ah.” Stehle suppressed the terror he felt, allowing the silver battle-qi in his body to explode. Under this sort of situation, Stehle was only able to utilize half of his power.

  “Die!”

  Linley’s eyes were totally red, and he chopped down at Stehle with his adamantine heavy sword.

  “Bam!” “Bam!” “Bam!”

  The adamantine heavy sword collided three times with Stehle’s sword. Each time, Linley’s right arm went numb from the shock, to the point where his hand was beginning to split open.

  “Swish!”

  “Swish!”

  In the same time that the adamantine heavy sword had attacked three times, Bloodviolet had slashed over ten times as well. Each of the strange attacks chopped at the same location. Although Stehle’s battle-qi was very dense, the eighth sword blow had managed to pierce it. The ninth and tenth attacks actually pierced into Stehle’s muscles, but Stehle’s body was filled with that dense battle-qi as well.

  Linley was unable to remain standing in mid-air. After delivering these ten blows, he began to sink downwards towards the ground.

  “Hrmph.”

  Stehle’s eyes had already turned cold. To be forced by a mere peak-stage combatant of the ninth rank to such a state was an absolute humiliation. Stehle let out a growl. “The Ice-Bound World!”

  While falling, Linley saw that in the sky, a mirage of a shadow of a sword had split space-time itself. In the blink of an eye, it reached his body. At this moment…this illusionary shadow of a sword seemed to have wiped away the entire world. In Linley’s world, the only thing which existed was this illusionary sword.

  Linley didn’t have any time to block.

  Zassler, the five Barker brothers, and those people watching from afar felt that the surrounding temperature had dropped to an extremely, terrifyingly low degree. Frost began to gather on their eyebrows.

  At the same time, the longsword in Stehle’s hands pierced towards Linley’s heart.

  But Linley didn’t react at all, allowing the longsword to pierce towards him at will…

  “Master!”

  “Boss!”

  Haeru and Bebe, these two magical beasts, could only watch helplessly as Linley was about to be killed.

  Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 36, True Experts

  This sword attack by Stehle, in terms of level, had surpassed that of the ‘impose’ level. If the ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’ of the adamantine heavy sword was one sort of special attack, then this attack by Stehle could be summarized using a single word: Fast!

  “I’m going to die?” Linley was filled with resentment and an unwillingness to die. He wanted to live. He hadn’t yet attained his goals.

  But unfortunately, in this world, many people died at times and places not of their choosing. After all, the world didn’t revolve around any person. Many events would not cater to their desires.

  “Boss.”

  Bebe’s tears had already begun to flow.

  But suddenly, Bebe was stunned.

  Not just Bebe. Haeru, Zassler, the Black Knight Captain, the five Barker brothers, and even the far away group of onlookers were all stunned.

  “What’s going on?” Everyone was flabbergasted.

  Linley was standing on the ground right now, while Stehle was stabbing down towards Linley from the sky. His sword was very, very close to Linley’s forehead.

  But the two of them didn’t move; they were frozen in position.

  Even the drop of blood dripping down from Linley’s injured right hand had frozen in mid-air.

  At this moment, it was as though the entirety of spacetime around Linley and Stehle had suddenly frozen. Objects, bodies…everything was paralyzed.

  Not just them. Bebe, Haeru, Zassler, the five Barker siblings. All of them were frozen.

  Silence!

  A gloomy feeling. A terrible sense of loneliness and quiet.

  A look of astonishment was in Stehle’s eyes.

  “Master Linley. Long time no see.”

  A gentle, playful voice rang out. A seemingly thirty-something year old man with long black hair, dressed in a loose robe, walked over. He looked the same as he always did; as though he had just woken up.

  “Stehle, right? All of you young fellows have reached the peak of the Saint-level. If I still didn’t advance, I really would feel too ashamed to meet anyone.” The lazy man dressed in the loose robe waved his hand. As though struck by a mountain, Stehle was sent flying backwards as though he were a meteor.

  “Bam!” “Bam!” “Bam!” “Bam!” ……

  Stehle’s body slammed through over ten stone walls before finally hitting the ground.

  “Linley, I haven’t seen you in around three years, yes?” The indolent man beamed at Linley. At this moment, Linley suddenly felt as though he could move again. Bebe, Haeru, Zassler, and the five Barker brothers all regained their movement ability as well.

  That terrifying suppressive aura had vanished.

  “Lord Cesar.” Linley immediately paid his grateful respects. Linley felt more gratitude towards Cesar than he ever had before. Just now, he had truly felt it was totally hopeless. The man had just saved his life. How could he not be grateful?

  The person who had come was indeed Cesar. The King of Killers.

  Zassler and the others all stared in astonishment, their mouths hanging open. What they had seen just then was simply too bizarre. And, faced with this man, Stehle was totally unable to resist at all.

  The sound of stones rumbling could be heard. Stehle climbed to his feet. Although his face was covered in dust and dirt, he still walked over, staring with disbelief at Cesar.

  “You…you…this….this…” Stehle was in total shock.

  “This what? Haha, tell me. This what?” Cesar grinned evilly at Stehle.

  Stehle had totally lost the demeanor and poise of an expert, only staring in Cesar in utter astonishment. He stammered, “God…God….Godrealm?!”

  “Godrealm?”

  Linley and Zassler were both astonished as well.

  No wonder Stehle had been so astonished. Just now, when everything had suddenly been frozen in place, was the legendary power of a “Godrealm”. Only a Deity-level could utilize this power.

  Right now, the Yulan continent had four supreme experts – War God O’Brien, the High Priest, and the Kings of the Forest of Darkness and the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

  But now…this King of Killers, Cesar, had his own Godrealm?

  “Haha…” Cesar laughed.

  “Lord Cesar.” Linley and the others stared at Cesar in astonishment.

  Cesar beamed as he stroked his mustache. “Don’t be surprised. Stehle, you and the others have been too arrogant. Hell, your old man, Cesar, reached the peak of the Saint-level over five thousand years ago, and my speed of training was far faster than yours. I’m a genius, you know.”

  Cesar spat out a bit of saliva, harrumphing as he continued. “But your old man was stuck at the peak of the Saint-level for ov
er five thousand years. If I still couldn’t find a way to break through, I really would feel ashamed. Thus, two years ago, I finally broke through that tiny little barrier.”

  Stehle, Linley, Zassler, and the others all remained silent.

  Good heavens.

  Just like that, another Deity-level combatant had been born.

  Linley found it understandable, actually. According to what Grandpa Doehring had said, Cesar was a person from Doehring Cowart’s era, and even back then, he was a Saint-level expert. To break through after five thousand years and finally reach the Deity-level wasn’t exactly something which happened out of nowhere.

  “Lord Cesar.”

  Stehle bowed respectfully.

  Any Deity-level combatant was worthy of respect. Upon reaching the Deity-level, one could ignore the existence of even empires. They were the true, highest powers of the land. It wouldn’t be too hard for a Deity-level combatant to wipe out the entire Holy Union, at most risking some serious wounds.

  “What is it?” Cesar looked at Stehle.

  Stehle said respectfully, “Lord Cesar, all these years, the relationship between the Radiant Church and you, Lord Cesar, has been quite excellent. I wonder if Lord Cesar would be willing to join us in the Radiant Church. As long as you are willing, Lord Cesar, I believe His Holiness, the Holy Emperor, would be willing to accede to any request.”

  This was a Deity-level combatant.

  Most likely Heidens would even be willing to resign the Holy Emperorship to him. After all, with a Deity-level combatant overseeing the Church, the status of the Radiant Church in the Yulan continent would be totally different.

  “Not interested.” Cesar snorted. “Hell, over these years, your old man hasn’t even been willing to manage the affairs of my own ‘Sabre’ organization. And you want me to work on your behalf?”

  Stehle let out two awkward laughs.

  Right now, most likely Cesar could stand in front of the Holy Emperor, wag his finger in the man’s nose, then curse at him, and the Holy Emperor wouldn’t dare make a sound. This was the prestige of a Deity-level combatant.