Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Within that pocket dimension, the flow of time couldn’t be noticed at all.

  Linley began to train in seclusion.

  Yulan calendar, year 10022, December 28th. In two more days, it would be the Yulan Festival. This would be a very historically special Yulan festival, because…on this Yulan Festival, the Baruch Empire would be formally founded.

  Baruch City was a hubbub of activity. Outsiders had filled Baruch City to the brim.

  Ten guards were escorting a simple, unadorned carriage on the streets of Baruch City. Just by looking at those warriors of the fifth rank and higher, one would know that the people inside the carriage were no ordinary people indeed. A long time later, the carriage arrived at a hotel.

  The guards immediately halted the horse.

  “Madame, we are at the hotel.” The carriage driver said respectfully into the carriage.

  “Understood.” A calm voice from within the carriage. A jade-white hand pulled open the carriage curtains, then stepped out. This noble lady wore violet clothes, covered by a black cloak. If Linley had been here, he would definitely recognize her…

  Alice!

  It had been almost twenty three years since the Apocalypse Day.

  Back then, Alice had been very young. After twenty three years, she had now acquired the natural grace and elegance of a noble lady.

  “Twenty three years.” Alice looked at the city, her heart filled with emotion. She knew the name of this city; Baruch City. This city had been founded based on the name of Linley’s clan. The fifth great empire of the Yulan continent would be formally founded in two days.

  The name was also the Baruch Empire.

  “Linley Baruch.” Alice murmured Linley’s name.

  That year when she and Kalan had met with danger in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, Linley had suddenly descended from the skies and saved her. That year, Linley was nothing more than a youth with potential, while she was a beautiful, carefree young girl. Kalan was the successor to a major noble clan.

  Twenty three years later.

  Linley had already reached a height which she couldn’t hope to approach.

  Alice felt gratitude from the depths of her heart towards Linley. On the Apocalypse Day, it was Linley who had entrusted her to Director Maia, who for Linley’s sake had taken care of her and Rowling the entire time they were fleeing. Director Maia had been very kind to the two girls.

  Afterwards, Alice and Rowling had become the adopted daughters Director Maia.

  And then, Alice had begun helping him take care of the matters of the Proulx Gallery. Rowling wasn’t good at management, but by contrast…Alice was very talented at managing the various Galleries, and so Director Maia slowly gave more and more authority to her. This time, it was Director Maia who had sent her to come to Baruch City.

  The reason was…she was going to start up a new Proulx Gallery, here in Baruch City!

  Generally speaking, all of the enormous cities had a Proulx Gallery present. In the future, Baruch City would become the center of the Baruch Empire (the Anarchic Lands). Naturally, they had to have a Proulx Gallery here.

  “Madame?” A nearby guard reminded gently. “It is snowing outside.”

  “Oh.”

  Only now did Alice return to the present. With a calm laugh, she said, “Let’s go.” Alice, escorted by her guards, entered the hotel. The guards behind Alice were very respectful to her. They knew that Alice’s husband had died years ago, on the Apocalypse Day.

  They actually were all puzzled…

  Why was it that Alice had never remarried?

  Yulan calendar, year 10023. January 1st. The Baruch Empire was founded.

  On this day, the envoys of each nation came, and Baruch City was full of festivities. However…at the same time, some of the experts hidden in seclusion throughout the Yulan continent were beginning to stir.

  They had begun to receive orders from the various Deity-level experts.

  O’Brien Empire. Outside the imperial capital. War God Mountain.

  “Welcome back, Master.” Over twenty Saints were standing there respectfully, while the War God, O’Brien, landed atop the mountain, his scarlet red hair flowing like knives.

  The War God O’Brien nodded slightly, then began to issue orders. “Castro.”

  Castro immediately took one step forward, awaiting the War God’s order. The War God said calmly, “Immediately head to the Anarchic Lands. Inform Linley that he is to come assemble with us next year on March 3rd at War God Mountain.”

  “Yes, Master.” Castro said immediately.

  “Lanke.” The War God spoke again. His disciple, Lanke, immediately took one step forward. The War God ordered, “Head to that little island in the North Sea where Kefande [Ke’fan’de] lives. Inform Kefande as well that no matter what, next year on March 3rd, he must come assemble with us at my War God Mountain.”

  “Yes, Master.” Lanke immediately assented.

  The War God spoke yet again. “Kenyon.” Kenyon also took a step forward. The War God continued, “You head to…”

  He issued orders to twelve disciples in a row, then immediately ordered ten other disciples to stay behind. These ten disciples were the most powerful of the War God’s personally taught disciples, and they included his very first disciple, Fain.

  “The ten of you, make your preparations. I don’t want you to end up like your Third Brother.” The War God said calmly.

  “Yes, Master!”

  The ten of them responded respectfully. They knew what their master was referring to.

  “If you are afraid to die, you can choose to give up instead. There are many Saints who would be willing to accept this opportunity.” The War God said calmly, then glanced at his ten disciples. Seeing the look on their faces, the War God nodded with satisfaction, then left.

  ……

  In an underground hall, Castro sat down. He had flown for a long time, first to Baruch City, then to here under Barker’s guidance. Castro had thought that Linley was still living at Mt. Blackraven.

  “Castro, wait a moment. Let me go notify Linley.” Barker smiled as he spoke.

  “Fine.” Castro was very polite.

  Barker then left the hall, and in three steps, headed towards that mysterious door. Castro quite orderly sat there, not daring to investigate with his spiritual energy. After all, Barker was a Saint as well. He would easily detect any spiritual energy probing.

  Barker arrived at the door.

  With one step, Barker entered the pocket dimension.

  Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 2: Breakthrough

  The pocket dimension room was divided into two layers; a central layer, and a lower layer. The central layer was the original layer. Linley was currently on this layer. As for the lower layer, this was for Delia to train in.

  Delia finished her training session and opened her eyes.

  She stared at the chaotic space outside the membrane. The first time she had seen it, Delia had felt shocked. But now, she was used to it.

  Raising her head, she looked up through the opening and saw Linley seated cross-legged in a meditative trance. Seeing Linley, Delia instantly felt her heart grow peaceful, and a calm smile appeared on her face as well. She immediately closed her eyes, then continued to muse on the profundities of magic within her sea of consciousness.

  “Thrum!” “Thrum!”

  The unique rhythms of the earth were sometimes like thunder, while other times like the crashing of waves. It contained boundless mysteries within it. Linley could clearly sense these two hundred and fifty six layers of waves reverberating within his consciousness.

  The profoundness of the Throbbing Pulse of the World was hidden within these 256 layered waves.

  However, the Throbbing Pulse of the World, born from nature itself, actually contained all of its secrets within a single vibrational pulse as well.

  Linley had bitterly trained for nearly twenty years. Only then had he managed to train from the first layered
wave to the 256th layered wave.

  “256 layered waves can just barely express the profound mysteries of the earth. To reduce the number of waves, but to increase the profundities of the Throbbing Pulse of the World…” Linley was constantly considering this, one idea after another flashing past his mind.

  None of them were correct!

  Wrong!

  Wrong!

  All wrong!

  Countless transformations and training methods appeared in his mind, but Linley rejected them all. Linley’s mind was currently in a state of focusing on nothing else besides considering, demonstrating, and then rejecting one training method after another. Perhaps some could let Linley improve in power, but Linley knew that none of them were the correct path.

  “Wrong. Wrong.” Linley’s forehead was beaded with sweat, but Linley didn’t notice at all.

  He didn’t know how much time had passed, or how many possibilities he had rejected.

  Suddenly…

  The meditating Linley’s eyebrows suddenly twitched, and then Linley suddenly rose to his feet. With a flip of his hand, the adamantine heavy sword appeared. His eyes still closed, Linley began to brandish about the adamantine heavy sword, but he wasn’t completely utilizing the Profound Truths of the Earth.

  “Thrum!” A vibration which seemed to have shaken Linley’s mind to its core.

  “Right. That’s how it is.” Linley suddenly opened his eyes, which were filled with joy.

  In that moment, Linley had managed to successfully fuse the profound truths contained within the first layer and the second layer into a single layer. “Combining two layers into one layer…” Linley’s eyes were filled with wild joy. “Right. One step at a time. I can’t possibly combine all 256 layered waves into a single wave all at once. First, I’ll combine two at a time. I’ll combine them all separately.”

  The first wave and the second wave became one.

  The third wave and the fourth wave would become one.

  The 255th wave and the 256th wave would become one.

  The end result would be that he would be able to exert the power of the 256 layered waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth into just 128 layered waves!

  Analyzing and combining them separately would be far easier. In addition, Linley had already succeeded in merging the first wave with the second wave.

  “Right. This has to be right.” Linley was very confident in his chosen path. After all, the end result of this ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ was combining the 256 layers of waves into a single wave. Thus…any two waves should be fuse-able as well. Only, it would still be difficult.

  With the successful test case of fusing the first and the second waves, however, Linley now had confidence in this method.

  Each and every single wave contained with it a different aspect of the profound mysteries. Every single fusion attempt required Linley to spend an enormous amount of time and effort guessing, testing, and evaluating.

  “Lord Linley!” As Linley was pondering his next move, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

  Linley opened his eyes. It was Barker. In the room below, Delia awakened as well, and she leapt onto the central level. After all, the distance between the two was only two or so meters. Given Delia’s current level of power, she could easily leap that distance.

  “Barker, why are you here?” Delia grinned at him.

  Linley allowed his mind to temporarily rest for a while. He had thought for a long time and tested for a long time. By now, Linley had already successfully fused the third and the fourth waves. What Linley now needed to do was to continue…until he fused the 255th and the 256th waves.

  At that time, the 256 Layered Waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth would be simplified to the 128 Layered Waves of the Profound Truths of the Earth. Linley expected that his power would instantly rise multiple times.

  “It is already so hard to fuse two waves into one. To continue down this path and further fuse the 128 waves into 64 waves will most likely be far more difficult.”

  This sort of fusion, to describe it in a rather crude way, was like fitting something into a box. If you had four boxes, and you wanted to put the items in two of the boxes into one box, although it would be hard, it was doable.

  One could put the items in those four boxes into just two of the boxes.

  But if you then wanted to squeeze the items in those two boxes into just one of the boxes…it would be at least ten times harder than what you had done previously!

  This sort of difficulty rise was exponential!

  This wasn’t something you could accomplish just by thinking about it. It required an extremely high level of comprehension regarding the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ and repeated attempts and repeated tests.

  “Barker, what happened?” Linley asked.

  “Lord Linley, Castro of the War God’s College is currently outside. He came at the orders of the War God to find you.” Barker immediately said. Hearing the words ‘War God’, Linley couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, then immediately stood up. “Come, let’s go outside and take a look.”

  Resting his hand on Delia’s shoulders, Linley immediately covered both his body and Delia’s with that layer of deep azure battle-qi, circulating it according to that unique rhythm.

  “Crackle crackle.”

  As they walked past the door, Linley took a few turns, and then arrived at the underground meeting hall. Castro was currently there waiting quietly with eyes closed. Hearing Linley’s footsteps, Castro immediately opened his eyes and stood up.

  As soon as he saw Linley, Castro immediately revealed a smile on his face, while he was secretly shocked. “Linley is far more reserved and disciplined than he was last time at the imperial capital. No wonder Senior Apprentice said that Linley was on par with him now.”

  “Castro, we haven’t met in years. Please, sit.” Linley smiled as he sat down.

  Castro’s smile grew wider. “It has been years indeed. These past few years, I haven’t changed much, but you, Linley. Not only has your personal power improved dramatically, you’ve even gotten married and had children. I saw your two children in Baruch City. That Taylor was especially cute.”

  Hearing others praise his children, Linley naturally felt quite happy.

  Delia laughed as well. “Mr. Castro, what is the purpose of this visit?”

  Castro laughed as well. “This time, I have come at the order of Master. I have come to deliver some news to Linley.”

  “What news?” Linley was puzzled.

  “Next year, March 3rd, Linley, you must make haste to War God Mountain.” Castro instructed.

  Linley, Barker, and Delia glanced at each other, their hearts puzzled. Linley spoke. “Castro, can you tell me why the War God is asking me to head to War God Mountain next year, on March 3rd? What is this about?”

  “Umm…” Castro hesitated a moment.

  “Is there a secret involved?” Linley guessed.

  Castro nodded. Linley’s heart suddenly moved. The War God had previously told Linley that within the Yulan continent, there was something known as the Necropolis of the Gods, and this Necropolis of the Gods had many precious treasures left behind by fallen Deities, such as…divine sparks!

  “Can you speak more clearly?” Linley asked, and then he explained, “Barker is also a Saint-level expert, and my wife is an Arch Magus of the ninth rank. She’ll reach the Grand Magus Saint level soon. There’s no need to hide anything.”

  “Then…fine.”

  Castro paused, then nodded. “This time, Master has instructed you to go to him, most likely in order to prepare to head to the Necropolis of the Gods together. The reason I say this is because before I came, Master had a special conversation with ten of my more senior fellow apprentices, most of whom have been training for more than three thousand years.”

  “The Necropolis of the Gods?” Delia and Barker let out surprised cries.

  Delia had heard Linley speak of the Necropolis of the Gods before. The
y were husband and wife, after all. Linley never held anything back from Delia.

  “Are you saying that those ten personal disciples of the War God’s College will be heading to the Necropolis of the Gods?” Linley asked.

  “You’ll know next year, so there’s no need for me to hide anything. Our War God’s College is indeed sending ten personal disciples over.” Castro’s face grew solemn. “But Linley, entering the Necropolis of the Gods is extremely dangerous. Just because you are strong, doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily survive.”

  “Oh?” Linley frowned, a bit puzzled.

  Castro explained, “Master only chose his ten most powerful disciples. You should have guessed this. The Necropolis of the Gods is a place which will easily kill most Saints who go there. Only upon reaching a certain level would one have hope of surviving.”

  “But if you are strong but have terrible luck, then you still might lose your life.” Castro laughed bitterly. “In the history of the War God’s College, several experts died in there, such as our Third Brother. In the past, his level of power was equal to that of the Senior Apprentice, but he still died in the Necropolis of the Gods.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  The people of the War God’s College had undoubtedly entered the Necropolis of the Gods multiple times. They were fairly experienced.

  “Very dangerous?” Delia asked, feeling a bit worried. She knew that Linley would most likely enter the Necropolis of the Gods.

  Castro nodded seriously. “It is. Master has said that if one rashly charges about in the Necropolis of the Gods, even someone like Master will fall, much less a Saint. Thus, in the Necropolis of the Gods, one needs strength, one needs caution, and of course…one needs a bit of luck.”

  Castro suddenly laughed. “But you don’t need to worry. I only heard of these things from my other fellow apprentices. I’m not too clear myself. It probably isn’t too dangerous. After all, the Senior Apprentice has been in the Necropolis of the Gods four times now, but he’s still alive, right?”