Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Lord Cesar, if you are unwilling, we won’t force it. But as for this Linley…he’s killed many people of our Radiant Church. Lord Cesar, would you be willing…”

  “Bullshit.”

  Cesar kicked Stehle in the stomach, but clearly, Cesar didn’t use any force with the kick. “Linley is a master sculptor on the same level as master Proulx and the others. I don’t have many hobbies. One is beautiful women, the other is sculptures. You want to kill Master Linley in front of me? In your dreams.”

  Stehle no longer dared to say anything.

  Stehle was extremely frustrated, because this mission of his had been to escort these five siblings back to the Radiant Church. Those five siblings all had bodies that were of the eighth rank in muscle power alone. Once the Angels descended into them, they would transform into five peak-stage Saint-level combatants.

  “Lord Cesar, that’s fine. The Church will of course give you face, Lord Cesar.” Stehle squeezed out a smile. “However, those five over there are people which our Church absolutely must have. No matter what the cost, we must take them back with us. I hope, Lord Cesar, you will agree.”

  “Oh, those five? Take them. I don’t know them anyhow.” Cesar said casually.

  The Radiant Church had indeed treated him quite well over the years. Thus, Cesar would give the Radiant Church face as well.

  The five Barker brothers were astonished.

  “Lord Cesar!” Linley said frantically.

  “Linley, do those five people have some sort of very important relationship with you?” Cesar twisted his lips. “Doesn’t seem to be the case. Don’t bother with them, then. Just enjoy your own life. Why bother about theirs?”

  This was Cesar’s temperament. He travelled alone, and acted as he pleased.

  “Thank you, Lord Cesar.” Stehle was overjoyed.

  Cesar beamed at him, then turned to look at the five Barker brothers. “Let me take a look and see who you are, that the Radiant Church would value you so highly.” Cesar swept the five Barker brothers with his gaze.

  The five Barker brothers were indeed very eye-catching. Those 2.2 meter tall bodies and terrifyingly muscular forms. All of them looked like enormous bears.

  “The five of you had best not resist.” Stehle walked over. Zassler and Linley wanted to stop him, but under Stehle’s cold gaze, Zassler and Linley could only laugh bitterly inside.

  How could they stop a peak-stage Saint-level combatant?

  Linley had just used both the baleful aura of the Bloodviolet sword as well as the most powerful attacks of the adamantine heavy sword. Despite that, he had only given the opponent the most superficial of injuries.

  “Linley, no matter what, we five brothers would like to thank you.” Barker, the oldest of the five brothers, said loudly.

  “These five fellows are pretty large, aren’t they.” Cesar’s playful voice rang out.

  Stehle immediately responded, “Yes, they are quite muscular.”

  Cesar looked at the five men. His expression, originally playful, suddenly slowly sank into a brooding look. He even began to slowly walk towards the Barker brothers, one step at a time.

  “Why are you coming over?” The third of the five brothers, Hazer [Hei’sha], growled.

  “Third bro, don’t be rude!” Barker growled back.

  “Big bro.” The muscular man said unhappily.

  Cesar quietly stared at the five siblings. By his side, Stehle was beginning to grow surprised. In a low voice, he asked, “Lord Cesar, what are you doing?”

  “Stehle, you can leave now.” Cesar said calmly.

  “Then Lord Cesar, I bid you farewell.” Stehle said respectfully. Then he immediately shouted towards the Barker siblings. “The five of you, walk in front.”

  “I said you can leave now. The five of them will remain behind.” Cesar said in a cold voice.

  Stehle was startled.

  Behind them, Linley and Zassler were both stunned as well. Even the five Barker brothers were shocked by these words.

  “Lord Cesar, you…?” Stehle stared at Cesar in astonishment. Just moments ago, Cesar had agreed to let him take the five of them away. But in the blink of an eye, things had changed.

  Cesar’s expression was colder and grimmer than it had ever been. He stared coldly at Stehle. “Stehle. Listen clearly. Go back and tell Heidens this. If in the future, the Church’s men make any attempts on these five brothers, then don’t blame me, Cesar, for not giving you face when I slaughter my way to your Sacred Isle.”

  Hearing these words, Stehle was totally shocked.

  “If you leave now, I’ll pretend nothing happened today. Otherwise…” Cesar’s eyes glittered with a cold light, and a terrifying murderous aura began to emanate from him.

  Cesar was the King of Killers to begin with. He specialized in assassination.

  And now, Cesar was a Deity-level combatant.

  Once Cesar made the decision to go against the Radiant Church, just by engaging in assassinations, he could probably kill all the Saint-level combatants of the Radiant Church without suffering a single injury.

  No matter what, the Church could not afford to offend a Deity-level combatant, much less a Deity-level combatant who specialized in assassinations.

  “Alright.” Stehle’s heart was filled with bitterness.

  It was also filled with rage. Rage at how overbearing and domineering Cesar was being. But Stehle knew that the person in front of him was a Deity-level combatant. He was qualified to be overbearing and domineering. He didn’t dare to show his anger or to retaliate.

  “Then Lord Cesar, I bid you farewell.” Stehle bowed slightly, and then transformed into a blur, disappearing from the scene.

  Linley, Zassler, and the five Barker brothers stared at Cesar in puzzlement.

  “In the past, Cesar was always so lazy and lackadaisical. So why did he grow so solemn upon seeing the five Barker brothers?” Linley was extremely puzzled as well.

  Cesar glanced at Linley and his group. “Come with me and leave this place. There are quite a few onlookers here. And…I expect Saint-level combatants have already detected the powerful ripples generated by this battle.”

  There actually were no Saint-level combatants in the prefectural city of Deco.

  The closest Saint-level combatant was over a thousand kilometers away. Even Saint-level combatants would take quite a while to travel that sort of distance when flying.

  Linley and the others immediately followed Cesar away from the battlefield. That very night, they left the prefectural city of Deco and entered the mountain wilderness. Only then did Cesar have everyone come to a rest stop.

  “We’ll spend the night here for now.” Cesar sighed.

  Right now, Cesar didn’t seem as carefree and unrestrained as he usually was. On the contrary, he seemed rather heartsick. Linley had the feeling that Cesar must have some sort of connection to those five siblings.

  Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 37, The Undying Warriors

  “Crackle.”

  The bonfire was blazing. Cesar, Linley, Zassler, and the five Barker brothers sat around the campfire. Bebe was resting on Linley’s thigh, while Haeru was lying behind Linley.

  Camping overnight in the wilderness was fairly dangerous. But who or what could possibly threaten Linley’s group? Especially with that Deity-level expert amongst them.

  “Why did you save us?” The eldest of the five brothers said in a loud voice.

  Linley and Zassler all turned to look at Cesar. This was a question they were curious about as well.

  Cesar glanced at the five of them. He didn’t respond, instead asking them a question of his own. “Your father? Your mother?”

  “All our relatives are dead. As for our parents? We were orphans since we were young.” Barker replied. They were now in their thirties. To them, who had spent their entire lives in the war-torn lands of the Eighteen Northern Duchies, growing up without parents wasn’t anything particular special.

>   After all, in those war-torn lands of the Eighteen Northern Duchies, orphans were a common sight.

  “Orphans…”

  Cesar let out a long sigh. “I didn’t expect that after all these years, the ‘Armand clan’ [A’man’da] whose fame shook the Yulan continent would fall to such a state.”

  The five Barker brothers, Linley, and Zassler all started.

  “Lord Cesar, are you saying that the Barker brothers are…” Linley had a guess as to what Cesar was saying.

  Cesar nodded. “Right. These five siblings belong to the Armand clan, the clan of the Undying Warriors, one of the Four Supreme Warrior clans of the Yulan continent.”

  “Undying Warriors?” Barker and his siblings all stared at each other in shock.

  “How is that possible?”

  The five brothers rose to their feet, stunned. They were orphans since youth. How could they dare imagine that they belonged to one of the Supreme Warrior clans?

  Linley had already guessed the truth as soon as he heard Cesar say the words, ‘Armand clan’. After all, Linley’s own clan records included information on each of the Four Supreme Warrior clans; the Dragonblood Warriors’ Baruch clan, the Violetflame Warriors’ Hyde clan, the Tigerstriped Warriors’ Prey [Bo’lei] clan, and the Undying Warriors’ Armand clan.”

  Five thousand years ago, these four clans indeed were extremely famous.

  Aside from the War God and the High Priest, without question, the Four Supreme Warriors stood at the absolute pinnacle of human power. Although there were other so-called peak-stage Saint-level combatants, those peak-stage Saint-level combatants couldn’t match the Supreme Warriors.

  Power and insight; these were two mutually supporting, mutually complementing things.

  For example, right now, Linley’s level of understanding was very high; he had surpassed the ‘impose’ level, and was nearing the peak-stage Saint-level in terms of understanding. But his actual power was extremely weak. Naturally, his attack force was far weaker than that of a Saint-level combatant.

  Historically, the third Dragonblood Warrior had used a heavy warhammer.

  When he had reached the Saint-level, he was only at the level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’. But despite that, he still possessed astonishing attack force.

  This was because his body possessed a terrifyingly high degree of power and battle-qi.

  A person’s strength and battle-qi were his most basic foundations. The higher one’s level of understanding, the better one would be able to utilize those basics. For example, if your basics were at 100, but you were at a low level of understanding, your actual attack power might just be 50. But if you had a high level of understanding, you might be able to use all 100 of your attack power, or perhaps even more, reaching 200 attack power.

  The Supreme Warriors, by their very nature, possessed several times more physical strength and battle-qi than other Saint-level combatants. Even if they were a bit inferior in terms of insight and understanding, their attacks would still be very terrifying. This was the natural gift of the Supreme Warriors!

  There was nothing that could be done for it. They were able to gain an unfair advantage over others via their natural gifts.

  “Your bodies must be extremely tough.” Cesar sighed.

  The five Barker brothers glanced at each other, then nodded. The second of the five brothers, Anke [An’ke], nodded and said, “It’s impossible for us to train in battle-qi, but just through our muscle power, we are on the level of warriors of the eighth rank.”

  “Aside from the Four Supreme Warriors, how could anyone else possibly break past the natural limitations of the body and reach the eighth rank just based on their body and muscles?” Cesar shook his head and said.

  Linley was now certain as well.

  Only the Four Supreme Warriors were restricted to using their own special battle-qi cultivation methods and be unable to train normal battle-qi.

  “Amongst the Four Supreme Warriors, the Undying Warriors have the toughest bodies. Their defense is very powerful, and their attacks are legendary as well. The only weakness is that you are a bit slow.” Cesar sighed. “Barker, you and your brothers are so young, but you were able to reach the eighth rank just based on your muscles and bodies. Aside from the most physically powerful of the Four Supreme Warriors, the Undying Warriors, who could possibly achieve this?”

  Linley nodded as well.

  Right.

  He himself was a Dragonblood Warrior, but if he were to try to reach the eighth rank based purely on physical training, who knows how long it would take? Even his younger brother Wharton, who trained in accordance with the Secret Dragonblood Manual, had only reached the seventh rank this year at age seventeen.

  “Aside from the elders of your clan, I’m afraid there is no one who knows more about you Undying Warriors than myself. You are definitely Undying Warriors. There is no question about this at all.” Cesar said with absolute certainty. “And what’s more, the five of you possess an extremely high degree of natural talent. If you were to train using the ‘Secret Undying Manual’, then most likely you would have already entered the ninth rank by now.”

  “The Secret Undying Manual?” Barker and his brothers were confused.

  Linley explained, “Barker, the truth is, all of the Four Supreme Warrior clans find other types of battle-qi to be unusable. Only by training in accordance with certain special ways can we develop battle-qi. As for your Undying Warrior clan, you can only train using the ‘Secret Undying Manual’.”

  “No wonder we couldn’t train battle-qi no matter what we tried.” The fifth brother, Gates [Gai’ci], said with a sigh.

  “If the five of you had been in possession of the ‘Secret Undying Manual’, there’s no way you would have been caught originally.” Cesar sighed. “The Four Supreme Warriors all possess extremely powerful attacks. Amongst them, the Undying Warriors possess the highest defense, the Tigerstripe Warriors are the fastest, the Violetflame Warriors possess the strange Nirvana Rebirth ability, while the Dragonblood Warriors are the most balanced, possessing powerful attack, defense, and speed.”

  Cesar was a man of Doehring Cowart’s era.

  This was also the era when the Supreme Warriors appeared in the world.

  “Lord Cesar, why is it that you treat us so…specially.” Barker said with curiosity.

  Hearing these words, Cesar couldn’t help but think back to the past. His expressions grew complex. After a long time, he sighed. “Your ancestor, Armand, was the dearest friend and bro that I, Cesar, have ever had.”

  Armand, the first clan leader of the Undying Warrior clan, was also the first Undying Warrior.

  “Five thousand years ago, the Yulan continent was in the midst of what was most likely the most chaotic, most dangerous era I have ever seen. The Four Supreme Warriors appeared out of nowhere, while the War God O’Brien became famous after his titanic clash with the High Priest. The Yulan Empire fragmented, as did the Pouant Empire. The entire continent sank into a mass of fire and floods.”

  Linley and the others all listened carefully, even though they knew this already.

  “And this was just what was going on, on the surface.”

  Cesar grinned at Linley. “Actually, that era was much more complicated than you can imagine. The Yulan continent had more than just our native experts. Even powerful combatants from other planes had descended to the Yulan continent.”

  “Powerful combatants from other planes?”

  Linley, Zassler, and the Barker brothers were all stunned.

  “Right.” Cesar chuckled. “To you, these are all distant, far away events, but that era really was chaotic. Many Saint-level combatants lost their lives. In that era, Saint-level combatants were nothing special, because there were many powerful experts who had descended…including many Deity-level combatants.”

  “Many Deity-level combatants?!” Linley felt his head grow dizzy.

  “Right.”

  Cesar n
odded. “Actually, five thousand years ago, organizations in some higher planes paid a very high price so as to allow their people to enter the Yulan continent. There was a reason they did this. Linley, you simply don’t know how fierce, how ruthless those battles back then were. At that time, Armand and I joined forces as we roamed the Yulan continent. Several times, I nearly died, but Armand rescued me. But of course…I helped out Armand several times as well.”

  Cesar fell silent at this point, as though he were reminiscing about past events between himself and Armand.

  Linley was growing puzzled.

  The Pouant Empire and the Yulan Empire had fragmented five thousand years ago. The War God had entered the Deity-realm and became famous five thousand years ago. The Four Supreme Warriors had also suddenly appeared out of nowhere five thousand years ago…

  And now, according to Cesar, five thousand years ago, even experts from other planes had descended to the Yulan continent.

  “Five thousand years ago, something incredibly major must have happened.” Linley thought to himself.

  “Enough of that. By the time your power reaches a certain level, even if you don’t want to know, there’ll be someone who will tell you.” Cesar chuckled.

  Linley suddenly had the sense that the Yulan continent wasn’t as simple a place as he had thought it to be.

  “Actually, there’s no need to force many things in life. Look at me. I eat when I should and play with women when I want to. I’m as carefree as I want to be. How wonderful is that? But look at that O’Brien, and that High Priest. Don’t be mistaken by their fame and glory. In reality, they are under enormous pressure.” Cesar quirked his lips.

  Linley, Zassler, the five Barker siblings, Bebe, and Haeru all silently listened.

  Listening to Cesar, this Deity-level expert, casually discuss the affairs of the most puissant experts on the Yulan continent, Linley had a very strange feeling.

  “Only after reaching the Deity-level will one have the power to move mountains at will.” Linley silently thought to himself.

  Cesar glanced at Linley. “Linley, let me give you a word of advice.”