Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Fine, then.” Linley nodded. “You are already at the Saint-level. I’ll transform into a Dragonblood Warrior as well.” Linley removed his upper body clothes, then allowed his body to become fully covered with black draconic scales, with the sharp spikes coming out as well.

  In the blink of an eye, Linley had totally transformed into his Dragonblood Warrior form.

  “Each time I see his Lordship’s eyes, my heart trembles.” The fifth brother, Gates, said in a low voice. The other three nodded.

  The dark golden eyes Linley had inherited from the Armored Razorback Wyrm were cold and utterly remorseless.

  “Barker, first, I’ll use my fist to execute the Profound Truths of the Earth. If you can totally withstand it, then I’ll switch to using the adamantine heavy sword.” Linley said in a deep voice.

  Through using his fists, he could still put the power of the Profound Truths of the Earth on full display.

  Only, in terms of actual force, it would be about half of that which the adamantine heavy sword could generate.

  “Alright, come. Don’t take it too easy on me.” Barker was full of excitement as well. Right now, his blue eyes had a hint of gold in them.

  Launching off from the ground, Linley shot upwards like a vicious blur towards the mid-air Barker.

  “Ten Layered Waves.” Linley let out a growl.

  Like a thunderbolt, his right fist smashed through the air, landing directly against the white armor covering Barker’s chest. But Barker felt nothing at all as that seemingly titanic punch slammed against his body.

  “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” ….

  The strange attack penetrated through his armor and his powerful muscles, then pierced through the Undying battle-qi surrounding his organs. Finally, like a warhammer, it smashed against his heart and his other organs.

  His internal organs all quivered.

  But then, the Undying battle-qi in Barker’s body once more covered his organs.

  “Haha, I’m fine. Again.” Barker’s eyes were shining. Linley’s punch using the Ten Layered Waves had actually not been able to injure him at all. The only thing he felt was a slight tremble from his internal organs.

  Linley nodded.

  Indeed, if a Saint-level Undying Warrior, with their incredibly strong defense, wasn’t able to take an empty-handed Ten Layered Waves blow, then Undying Warriors wouldn’t be worthy of being praised as the Supreme Warriors with the greatest level of defense.

  “Fine. I’ll begin to gradually increase my attack power.” Linley didn’t waste any more words, immediately beginning to attack.

  Barker knew very well that the weak point of the Undying Warriors lay in their low speed. In truth, even if he were to engage in a genuine battle against Linley, given Linley’s superior speed, Linley could land one punch after another on him. The result wouldn’t be too different from what he was doing right now; just standing there and letting Linley hit him.

  The number of vibrations each blow caused slowly began to increase.

  From ten layers, to twenty layers, to thirty layers…

  “His defense truly is powerful. He’s even managed to withstand ninety layers of vibrations.” Linley’s eyes were shining. He immediately called out loudly, “Barker, prepare to take my most powerful bare-handed blow!”

  Barker waited for him there in mid-air.

  Barker had to admit that just then, the ninety layered waves had caused him some injury. But due to the astonishing healing power of his Undying battle-qi, he had already pretty much recovered from that light injury.

  “Hundred Layered Waves!”

  Like a tempest, Linley shot into the air, his fist drawing closer and closer to Barker before finally smashing against his chest.

  “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” ….

  Barker felt as though he had been smashed by an enormous meteor as both his body as well as his internal organs began to vibrate with a strength which he had never experienced before. A hundred vibrations occurred in the blink of an eye.

  Barker felt his internal organs shudder, and he could already taste blood in his mouth.

  He wanted to swallow it, but then another stream of blood was forced into his mouth by his organs. He could no longer repress it, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

  “Big bro!” Barker’s four brothers immediately ran over in astonishment.

  “Barker.” Linley was surprised as well.

  “I’m fine.” After spitting out that mouthful of blood, Barker actually felt much better. “I’m not injured too badly. My Undying battle-qi should be able to totally cure this sort of minor wound in just three days or so.”

  Barker looked at Linley with admiration. “Lord, in terms of understanding and insight, you are on a much higher level than me. Although my body is more powerful than yours, I’m still unable to defeat you.”

  The Linley of four years ago definitely wouldn’t have been a match for the current Barker.

  But over the course of these four years, Linley had deepened his understanding of the Profound Truths of the Earth. By enhancing his original Triple Layered Waves to the current level of a Hundred Layered Waves, he had increased his attack power by several dozen times.

  “If I were to use my adamantine heavy sword, the power of the Hundred Layered Waves would be doubled.” Linley said to himself. The power of the Profound Truths of the Earth, when executed by a heavy sword, was extremely great.

  “If I used all of my power with the adamantine heavy sword and executed the Hundred Layered Waves attack, I could most likely heavily injure or even kill an early-stage Saint-level Undying Warrior.” Linley was now very certain.

  The defensive abilities of the Undying Warriors were legendary.

  If even an early-stage Saint-level Undying Warrior was unable to take this attack, how could an ordinary early-stage Saint-level combatant do so?

  “Any early-stage Saint-level who encounters the Hundred Layered Waves attack will most likely die.” Linley felt extremely confident.

  Raw power and level of insight were mutually supportive.

  Compared to four years ago, Linley’s raw power had not increased much. But in terms of the effectiveness of his level of understanding, he had improved by dozens of times. An ordinary peak-stage combatant of the ninth rank, upon reaching the Saint-level, would generally only increase in power by around ten times or so.

  “Barker.” Zassler said with a smile. “In terms of raw power, the bodies of the five of you are not one whit weaker than Linley’s. Your body, Barker, is in fact stronger than Linley’s. But in terms of insight and understanding, you are too inferior. Linley has already told you that his levels of understanding can be divided into four levels; ordinary attacks being the first, ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’ as the second, ‘impose’ as the third, and the ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’ as the fourth. But the five of you are still at the most basic level of using raw force. Your level of understanding and insight is far too low.”

  Barker deactivated his transformation, returning to his normal appearance.

  “In the past four years, Lord Linley has already taught us much. But we five brothers truly…” Barker laughed awkwardly.

  “Old man, do you think we are geniuses? His Lordship is around twenty five years old, but has already reached the peak-stage of the Saint-level in terms of insight and understanding.” The fifth brother, Gates, didn’t treat Zassler with any respect at all.

  Zassler glanced at Gates unhappily.

  “You are physically powerful and all use heavy weapons. You should easily be able to understand the level of ‘using something heavy as though it were light’. But don’t be too impatient. As long as you focus on your training, one day, you will perhaps understand it.” Linley said encouragingly.

  In truth, Linley had a large, unfair advantage.

  His elemental affinity was, after all, exceptional. As a magus, he naturally was able to more easily attune with nature and c
ommune with it. Pairing his inborn elemental affinity with his proficiency with the sword, it was very natural for him to be able to quickly deepen his level of understanding.

  “Yes, Lord.” The five brothers all nodded.

  The five Barker brothers all knew that right now, Linley was also at the peak of the eighth rank. As soon as he broke through to the next level, Linley would also be at the early-stage of the Saint-level in his Dragonform. Given his already-high level of understanding, by then, the difference between Linley and them would be even greater.

  “We can’t allow ourselves to become a hindrance to him.” The five proud brothers all decided to work even harder from now on.

  In the blink of an eye, yet another year passed.

  The autumn wind was still howling drearily, the same as before.

  Staring into the distance at the Barker brothers engaged in their training, Linley couldn’t help but grin. All five of the Barker brothers were physically stronger than Linley, and Linley had paid for the Dawson Conglomerate to produce weapons for them.

  Five long-handled greataxes.

  Those long-handled greataxes were at least two meters long, and were astonishingly thick. In addition, the axeheads were extremely large as well. The greataxes themselves were made from the finest and rarest of materials, with each long-handled greataxe weighing an astonishing 5300 pounds.

  “The fifth brother, Gates, has a relatively higher talent for insight. He was the first to understand ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’. The other four have yet to grasp it.”

  Although over a year had passed, aside from Barker, the others remained stuck at the peak-stage of the eighth rank and had not broken through. The only pleasant surprise had been Gates coming to understand ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’.

  Zassler had spent this year in tireless training as well. This 800+ year old man had been somewhat embarrassed by the rapid increases in power by Linley and the Barker brothers, causing him to become hard working as well.

  Watching the dried leaves fall from the trees, Linley suddenly felt very much at peace.

  “Five years. It has been five years. I should go fulfill my end of the five year agreement as well.” Linley looked towards the northwest, in the direction of the prefectural city of Cerre.

  Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 42, An Appointment Kept

  The five year agreement. Linley still remembered his promise.

  “I hope Jenne won’t be too determined.” Linley knew that even if in the end, Jenne elected to follow him, at most Linley would only be able to treat her as he did Rebecca and Leena.

  Linley couldn’t reciprocate her affections.

  After experiencing so much and passing one tribulation after another, the deepest part of Linley’s heart had been frozen and locked. That layer of ice covering it was very cold, very thick. To melt the hard ice surrounding Linley’s heart would be difficult. Very difficult.

  But when he thought about affairs of the heart, Linley began to think about Wharton.

  “According to Yale’s messengers, over this past year, Wharton and the Seventh Princess of the Empire have been quite passionate with each other. However, according to what the letter says, it won’t be easy for Wharton to successfully take the Seventh Princess as his wife.”

  The Seventh Princess’s background was simply too excellent. She was virtuous, kind, beautiful, of high rank, and doted upon by her imperial father. There were too many suitors.

  The only thing Linley could do was to silently bless his little brother and hope he would have a wonderful relationship.

  At least, his brother couldn’t end up like him.

  Half a month later.

  “Lord.” The fifth brother, Gates, energetically sprinted over towards Linley, who had just completed a sculpture. With excitement, he said, “My big brother has also grasped the concept of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’.”

  “Oh?”

  With a flip of his hand, Linley stored away his straight chisel. With surprise, he said, “Barker has reached the level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’?”

  “Right. Lord, why don’t you go take a look?” Gates advised.

  Linley laughed. “How about this. Gates, have everyone come to the main hall. There’s something I want to tell all of you.”

  “Oh.” Seeing Linley had something important that he wished to discuss, Gates nodded.

  After a while, everyone congregated within the main hall. Many of them were animatedly talking about Barker reaching the level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’.

  “Everyone.”

  Smiling, Linley walked into the main hall. “I have an important matter I need to take care of. On this trip, I will only bring Bebe and Haeru. As for the rest of you, all you need to do is to continue to train here. If everything happens quickly, I’ll be back in a few days. If I need a bit longer, I’ll send someone with a message.”

  “Lord, you don’t plan to take us along?” Gates asked loudly.

  “Continue your training.” Linley laughed as he glanced at Gates. “Gates, if you can reach the ‘impose’ level, or reach the ninth rank, I will take you as well.”

  Gates immediately shut his mouth. He wasn’t Linley. Reaching the level of ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’ was already quite difficult for him. He was still just at the basic stage of this level, and had yet to even master it.

  “Enough. Tomorrow morning, I leave at dawn.” Linley declared directly.

  The next morning at dawn, the Barker brothers, Rebecca, Leena, and Zassler all watched as Linley, dressed in a warrior’s outfit covered by a long black robe, rode off on the back of Haeru, his Blackcloud Panther, with Bebe seated next to him. The man and the two magical beasts departed from the Cloudpeaks Village.

  His long black robe fluttered in the wind. Linley’s weapons had all been withdrawn into his interspatial ring.

  “Using the adamantine heavy sword to execute the Profound Truths of the Earth is extremely powerful; once that technique comes out, most likely the target will perish. Normally, it would be better for me to continue using the Bloodviolet Godsword.”

  Linley had already reached a fairly high level of proficiency in using his Profound Truths of the Earth.

  But as for the Profound Truths of the Wind his Bloodviolet sword used, Linley’s level of proficiency was quite low.

  Linley didn’t believe that using the Bloodviolet sword was necessarily weaker than using the adamantine heavy sword. After all, the forbidden wind-style spell was the single-target spell ‘Dimensional Edge’. If magical techniques could create the effects of this spell, logically speaking, sword techniques should as well.

  “Bebe, I’ve discovered that over these years, you’ve continued to improve. What sort of magical beast are you, exactly?” Seated astride Haeru, Linley laughed towards Bebe.

  Haeru let out a growl. “Master, Bebe is a total freak. I’ve never seen such a freakishly powerful magical beast. Five years ago, he was about the same as me, but now, he’s much more powerful. But he still hasn’t reached the Saint-level yet.”

  If Haeru had met the three sons of Dylin, the King of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, he would know that there were other magical beasts in the world that were even more freakishly powerful than Bebe. Those three were terrifying magical beasts of the Saint-rank had easily swallowed over a hundred enormous dragons into their bellies.

  “Bebe has grown somewhat stronger.” Linley chuckled. “But Bebe seems to still be growing.”

  Linley suspected that Bebe was not fully an adult yet.

  “Heh heh, that’s entirely possible.” Bebe narcissistically raised his little head. “When I, Bebe, reach adulthood, maybe I’ll be a Saint-level magical beast.”

  Saint-level magical beasts such as the Bloody-eyed Maned Lion, the Savage Worldbear, the Violet-Eyed Goldfur Ape…these were magical bea
sts which would, as a natural part of their growth cycle, enter the Saint-level as soon as they reached full adulthood.

  This was the innate gift of these Saint-level magical beasts.

  “I’ve heard of Saint-level magical beasts. But is there such a thing as magical beasts which would naturally grow up to reach the Deity-level?” Linley sighed to himself. “Even if there are, I’ll wager they wouldn’t appear on planes such as the Yulan continent.”

  They continued on their journey. By nightfall, Linley reached the prefectural city of Cerre.

  On the streets of Cerre, there were many people mounted on magical beasts. However, most of those people were mounted on low-level or mid-level magical beasts such as Windwolves or Fanged Wolves.

  When Linley rode the Blackcloud Panther on the streets, the other magical beasts all prudently retreated in terror, giving him space.

  Although humans, when encountering strange magical beasts, might not be able to accurately gauge the beast’s strength, when a low level magical beast encountered a high level magical beast, they would easily be able to sense the difference in power.

  “Hrm? A black panther?”

  A very ordinary man in the streets of the prefectural city of Cerre saw Linley seated on his black panther, and his eyes immediately lit up. “He has a black panther, and he looks exactly the same as the picture. It must be him.”

  The man immediately grew excited. He immediately ran out of the street, heading towards a small alleyway.

  At the gate to the governor’s castle of the prefectural city of Cerre. As soon as Linley had seen the gate, he discovered that a large number of people were congregating around the gate, awaiting his arrival.

  “Big brother Ley.”

  A young man and woman called out at the same time.

  Linley immediately recognized them. The girl who had grown even more mature and beautiful was Jenne, while the handsome young fellow who was half a head taller than Jenne was most likely the grown up Keane.

  Keane and Jenne ran over excitedly.

  The now nineteen year old Keane said loudly, “Big brother Ley, I heard from the guards a long time ago that a man riding a black panther had arrived. I immediately guessed that it must be you.”