Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  In the entire rear flower garden, aside from Linley, only one person was left – Zassler.

  “Zassler.” Linley didn’t turn around. “You can leave as well.”

  “Lord Linley, I wonder if you would be willing to tell me what happened to your body just now. Perhaps…I can understand a few things.” Zassler stared straight at Linley, his gaze firm.

  “No need.” Linley said calmly. “I don’t wish to discuss this matter further.”

  Linley was currently in a terrible mood.

  “Lord Linley, if you tell me what happened to you within your body, perhaps…I will be able to tell you why Yale did this. There is a possibility that Yale is not to blame for his actions.” Zassler paused for a moment, then spoke.

  Linley suddenly turned around, staring at Zassler. “What did you say?”

  “I said, perhaps Yale is not to blame for his actions. There might be other reasons.” Zassler said.

  When Linley heard these words, his heart instantly became filled with hope. He truly hoped that Yale had his own difficulties, which is why he had asked Yale earlier why he had done this. But from Yale’s eyes, he had seen no pain or embarrassment, only cold indifference.

  This caused Linley’s heart to turn so cold.

  “Alright. I’ll tell you.” Linley immediately began to describe in detail what had happened in his body to Zassler. Of course, Linley didn’t explain too much about how that special protective azure light unique Dragonblood Warriors possessed had increased dramatically. After all, to Zassler, what really mattered was what had been used to attack Linley.

  “Soulsilk?” Zassler’s eyes instantly lit up as he heard this. “So my suspicions were correct.”

  “What is ‘Soulsilk’?” Linley looked at Zassler.

  Zassler explained in detail, “Lord Linley, I’ve had many suspicions this entire time, but now, I’m absolutely certain. I’ll tell you right now that this ‘Soulsilk’ is based off of Necromantic Magic. It is a type of poison that is specially meant to attack the souls of others. Only, the process of refining it is extremely difficult, and the requirements are very high. Even I have never refined this poison.”

  “Are you saying that this wine had Soulsilk inside it?” Linley asked.

  Zassler nodded. “Right. After Soulsilk has been refined, it needs to be stored in a special type of liquid. That way, the Soulsilk will be able to last for a long period of time.”

  “So the culprit behind Yale is someone who trains in Necromancy?” Linley’s eyes lit up.

  Zassler nodded. “Lord Linley, actually…when you informed us that yesterday that after killing those two silver-robed men, that Violet-Gold Rat King, Harry, told you that the Deity behind those two knew that it was the two of you who had killed the two silver-robed men…I began to grow suspicious.”

  “Because even Deities can’t always be casting their Deific presence everywhere at all times. You suddenly killed those two silver-robed men. How could the Deity behind them possibly know? But Harry was so certain that the Deity knew. Thus…in my mind, there’s only one possibility!”

  “That was a Soulseed!”

  Zassler said seriously, “Necromancers can use their own soul energy to condense into a Soulseed, and then place that Soulseed into someone else’s soul. That person will then be under the complete control of the Soulseed’s creator. At the same time, between servant and master, there will be a spiritual link and ability to communicate. Thus, before dying, those two silver-robed men were been able to inform the appearances of you and Fain to that Deity.”

  Linley felt utterly shocked.

  “Lord Linley, you said that there are nine silver-robed men, and that most likely every single one of them is at Prime Saint levels of power. I imagine…the only type of person capable of controlling nine Prime Saints would be an expert practitioner of Necromancy who has reached the Deity-level.” Zassler said with certainty. “This is because Grand Magus Necromancers definitely don’t have the ability to control so many Prime Saints. After all, the more powerful the person being controlled, the higher the requirements the Soulseed will have.”

  “In addition, Lord, you and Yale have an extremely deep relationship with each other, but when he tried to kill you, he was so remorseless and uncaring. He was even able to bring out a poison such as Soulsilk…there’s only one explanation. He, too, has been controlled by a Soulseed from that Deity.”

  Zassler looked at Linley. “Lord Linley, you should forgive Yale. Once a person is controlled by a Soulseed, deep in their mind, they will come to treat the wishes of their master as paramount. Even if one was ordered to commit suicide or commit patricide or matricide, it would be done without hesitation. He’s nothing more than a dominated puppet right now.”

  Linley felt both joy and fear in his heart.

  Fear for Yale!

  “Yale’s been controlled…then…is there any method to allow him to return him to normal?” Linley was filled with worry for Yale.

  “There is.” Zassler nodded. “The method is…kill the Deity. At that time, the Soulseed will naturally dissipate.”

  Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 22, (title hidden)

  Only after killing the Deity would Yale be rescued?

  Hearing Zassler’s words, Linley felt a hint of pressure.

  “Yale currently…” When Linley thought about how Yale was currently being dominated by the Soulseed and would completely obey the orders of that mysterious Deity, he felt both rage and injustice in his heart. “No matter who that Deity is, I will definitely kill him!”

  For the sake of letting Yale become the old Yale once again.

  To let Yale regain his sense of self. He had to do this!

  “Lord Linley? I want to ask.” Zassler paused a moment, then asked, “Lord Linley, after you and Lord Fain killed those two silver-robed men together, did you acquire anything from the corpses of those silver-robed men? For example, interspatial rings….”

  “There were interspatial rings.” Linley nodded as he looked at Zassler. “But I gave them to Wharton already. Wharton can give them to whoever he wants. What of it?”

  Perhaps to a King of a Kingdom, interspatial rings were very precious.

  But to an ordinary Saint, they were relatively commonplace items. To an expert like Linley, it would be very easy for him to acquire an interspatial ring. Thus, he didn’t care too much about the interspatial ring that he had found on the silver-robed men’s corpses. They had acquired two interspatial rings from the two silver-robed men. Fain took one, and Linley had taken one.

  “Lord Linley, it’s best if you first investigate what exactly is within that interspatial ring.” Zassler said solemnly.

  “Fine.”

  Linley listened to Zassler’s advice and immediately sent someone to invite Wharton to come over.

  Wharton quickly arrived at the rear gardens. On the way over, he was feeling rather worried. “Big bro highly values the love he shared with his bros. But that Yale, he…big bro must feel terrible right now.” Wharton was worrying for Linley, but when he saw Linley, he discovered…

  Right now, Linley didn’t seem heartbroken at all. Instead, he was frowning slightly, a steely look in his gaze, as though he was worrying about something.

  “Big bro, why’d you summon me?” Wharton immediately asked.

  “I gave you an interspatial ring, right? Have you given it to someone else yet?” Linley asked hastily.

  Wharton laughed and said, “Not yet. I was planning to give it to Nina in a few days. Nina and I have been married for so long, but I’ve never gifted her with anything particularly precious.”

  “Have Nina come over quickly and have her bind it with blood. Let’s see what’s inside this interspatial ring.” Linley said hurriedly.

  Wharton was very surprised. Why was his big brother in such a rush over this?

  Soon, Nina arrived. After knowing what Linley wanted, Nina very straightforwardly immediately bound the interspatial ring by blood,
and then retrieved all of the contents stored within the ring at once.

  There were some clothes, some ore…and in particular, a crystal ball stood out.

  “That’s it.” Zassler’s eyes lit up when he saw the crystal ball.

  Linley, Wharton, and Nina were all somewhat puzzled. As far as they were concerned, the crystal ball had a bit of a strange aura, yes, but Linley and the other two had no idea what effect the crystal ball had. But Zassler knew what it was, as soon as he saw it.

  Zassler reached out and lifted up the crystal ball. The materials on the inside of the crystal ball seemed to be different compared to the materials on the outside of it. When the sunlight shone into the crystal ball, it would distort and then solidify within the heart of the crystal ball.

  Zassler controlled his spiritual energy, delivering it into the crystal ball, carefully inspecting the situation within.

  “This crystal ball has already been refined.” Zassler said after a pause, trying to find a way to simplify what he wanted to say. “Its current purpose is now to absorb any surrounding unprotected souls within an area of ten square meters or so.”

  “Collect souls?” Linley’s heart shuddered.

  He understood now.

  The ‘dead city’ events were clearly caused by the silver-robed men, who would slaughter people with one hand while holding the crystal ball in the other. Each time a person was killed, their soul would naturally be absorbed into the crystal ball. After wiping out the entire Bluelion City, nearly a hundred thousand souls would have been absorbed.

  “What is the purpose of collecting souls?” Wharton said in astonishment. Wharton and Nina both felt a sense of great shock.

  Zassler explained, “The collecting of many souls…first of all, because Necromancy comes from the Overgod of Death, generally speaking, those who train in Necromancy are able to become Deities. They mostly train in the Edicts of Death, and the Edicts of Death contain much regarding the usage of souls.”

  “By amassing a large amount of souls, one can execute some special attacks.” Zassler explained.

  “The…the Edicts of Death, it really is…” Even Linley felt rather uncomfortable.

  He knew of the seven Elemental Laws of earth, fire, water, wind, lightning, light, and darkness. He also knew that Death, Destruction, Life, and Fate were four types of Edicts. Edicts and Laws were two different concepts. The Edicts were the rules which governed the functioning of the entire universe.

  As for the Edicts of Death, training in them focused on ‘Death’.

  “The biggest purpose of amassing so many souls is to refine them and absorb them to increase one’s own soul in power.” Zassler’s words never ceased to amaze.

  “Strengthen the power of one’s own soul?” Linley was truly stunned.

  In the past, Dylin had told Linley that there were two options to becoming a Deity. The second option was to form a clone Deity body around the divine spark, which would represent that one’s soul was being split in half. The soul was the most basic element to any living creature! Upon becoming a Deity, a Deity’s body, once destroyed, could instantly be reformed from energy.

  But if the soul was destroyed, then one would definitely die.

  While one trained and grew stronger, one’s soul would slowly grow stronger as well.

  “Refine a large amount of souls, then absorb them to strengthen one’s own soul?” Linley felt this was simply inconceivable.

  “Right. Only, refining souls is simply too hard.” Zassler sighed. “It requires a thorough understanding of souls. Even I am not capable of doing such a thing. I imagine that a Deity who trains in the Way of Death will be capable of doing this. But most likely even other Deities who train in different Laws will find it very hard to do this.”

  Linley nodded to himself.

  Refining the souls of others to strengthen one’s own soul. This ability was simply too monstrous.

  If any ordinary Demigod was capable of it, that would be too ridiculous. From the sound of it, even Deities capable of doing this were extremely rare.

  “I think that I already have a good idea as to where that Deity is currently located.” Zassler said.

  Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.

  Zassler said calmly, “Putting all the pieces together, such as Yale asking to buy so many battle captives, or those silver-robed men destroying cities and collecting souls…clearly, this Deity is desperately in need of souls. As for this Deity’s location, I imagine that he is located in the place where those battle captives are being delivered to.”

  Linley agreed with this point as well.

  “We also know that the excuse the Dawson Conglomerate gave us for the reason why they are buying so many slaves is because they are excavating an enormous secret mine, with the location being within a mountain range near the southern edge of our Baruch Empire. Within that mountain range, there is a large valley, where one of the branches of the Dawson Conglomerate are located. I think…that Deity is probably there.” Zassler guessed.

  Zassler’s lips revealed a hint of an evil smile. “Not just that. For Yale to be able to arrive so quickly…Lord Linley, you killed that silver-robed man just last night, but Yale arrived right away today. I expect that last night, Yale received the order from that Deity to come deal with you.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  “Yale isn’t a Saint. He has to ride a flying magical beast. First, he needs to go to the Deity to retrieve the Soulsilk Poison, and then make haste to Dragonblood Castle. He only spent ten or so hours…and how fast can a flying magical beast be? Thus, that Deity is definitely within a few thousand kilometers of us. Otherwise, there is no way Yale would be able to make haste to Dragonblood Castle so quickly.”

  “The only large branch of the Dawson Conglomerate within a few thousand kilometers of us is that valley.”

  Zassler was very certain.

  “Right.” Linley nodded slightly. “Wharton, Zassler, Nina…all of you can go rest. I’m going to immediately begin training.”

  “Big bro, are you in that much of a hurry?” Wharton was somewhat surprised. After all, Linley had said that they would have dinner together, and he would only go back into training after dinner.

  “What sort of a mood do you think I am in? Enough. All of you, go handle your own affairs.” Linley turned his gaze towards the southwest. “Collecting souls? Slaughtering living beings? Dominating Yale…” Linley was filled with a killing urge towards this unseen, mysterious Deity.

  Linley immediately left the rear flower garden, entering the hidden secret training room deep within Dragonblood Castle.

  As soon as Linley stepped into the pocket dimension, Delia, who was seated in the meditative position on the stone bed, opened her eyes.

  “Linley, what happened?” Delia was somewhat puzzled.

  Seeing Delia, Linley made a decision. He didn’t want Delia to worry. Forcing out a smile, he said, “Nothing. Let’s continue training.” Linley immediately sat on the floor in the meditative position. Outside the pocket dimension, the multicolored chaotic space continued to flow about.

  “Upon reaching the Deity-level, the very first Deity I will kill will be that bastard.” Linley’s heart was filled with a murderous urge.

  Linley took three deep breaths before he was able to calm down, and then he fully began to absorb himself in attuning with the Elemental Laws of the Wind, constantly experimenting and perfecting the Profound Truths of Velocity…

  As he attuned with the boundless Elemental Laws, those three illusionary mental swords which represented the ‘Fast’ aspect, ‘Slow’ aspect, and ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ all began to display their attacks in his mind. Those three swords transformed countless times, and in a single instant, Linley was capable of hypothesizing ten million different methods of usage.

  Hypothesize, and then verify using the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ swords. Only then could he slowly gain new insights.

  Only one experiment after another would he be
able to understand what the right path was.

  The more insight he gained, the more Linley could clearly sense that the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects truly weren’t opposites at all. They both contained commonalities. Fortunately, Linley had only gained some low-level insights into the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects, allowing his ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ to also improve.

  If he had previously reached an extremely high level in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects, it would be extremely hard for him to fuse them later.

  Time flowed like water, never stopping.

  The Grand Warlock also knew that the Soulsilk Poison which Yale had used had failed to kill Linley. This was actually a cause of considerable surprise to the Grand Warlock. This Soulsilk Poison was extremely toxic, and not a single Saint had been able to escape its affects alive yet.

  Linley was the very first to survive this technique of the Grand Warlock’s.

  “I suppose I’ll let that little punk of a Saint live for a while longer.” The Grand Warlock didn’t care about a Saint. If the opponent was a Deity, he might have been a bit concerned.

  But a Saint?

  The only reason he wanted to kill Linley was because Linley had killed his silver-robed guardians, making him a bit angry.

  “So he actually didn’t kill Yale. He really is ‘soft-hearted’. Someone like him would have been betrayed and murdered in the Gebados Planar Prison long ago. Oh well, it’s all for the best. For him to do this saves me the trouble of spending more soul energy to go control another member of the Dawson Conglomerate.”

  This affair quickly disappeared from the Grand Warlock’s mind. Right now, the Grand Warlock focused on refining the large amount of souls in front of him.

  In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.

  Deep within Dragonblood Castle. The pocket dimension. Within the mind of Linley, who was in the meditative position, immersed in his training. Those three illusionary swords continued to display themselves again and again, representing yet another mystery of the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’.