Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Also…

  “When training in the ‘Essence of the Earth’ or ‘Essence of Fire’, there are some commonalities.” Linley thus found it much easier to grasp the basics of the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of Fire.

  “Linley, you woke up.” Delia opened her eyes as well.

  “How is your training proceeding?” Linley rose to his feet.

  “Not bad. I’m halfway through mastering the profound mysteries of the Laws.” Delia said.

  The Elemental Laws of the Wind in total had nine types of profound mysteries. Prior to fusing with this Highgod spark, Delia had already known four of the nine profound mysteries. After spending six more years, Delia had gained insights into yet another one.

  “Let’s go. Let’s go eat something and drink something.” Linley and Delia walked out, shoulder to shoulder.

  Their little journey to the dining hall was very peaceful. Most of the Fiends were training in their own rooms. Right now, there were only a few Fiends in the main hall, but of course…there would definitely be two people there. Bebe and Nisse.

  “Linley, Delia, what a coincidence. You came as well.” Someone walked over from by Linley’s side. It was Nisse’s older brother.

  “Salomon [Sa’luo’meng], it is rather coincidental.” Linley laughed. “Come, let’s go have a drink.”

  Salomon, as Nisse’s older brother, was a Highgod-level expert. However…Linley guessed that this Salomon was a very ordinary Highgod. This was because the most powerful people on this mission were the three Five Star Fiends and the Six Star Fiend.

  Linley’s group headed straight towards Bebe and Nisse, who were currently joking and teasing each other.

  “Ninny, tell me, why are you girls so beautiful and yet so foolish?” Bebe sat there on the chair, staring at the nearby Nisse.

  Nisse considered for a moment, then immediately said, “Oh, I know.”

  “Adorable Ninny, please speak.” Bebe looked at Nisse.

  Nisse wrinkled her little nose, then said, “Women are beautiful so as to let you men fall in love with us. As for why women are foolish…it’s to make me fall in love with you!”

  Bebe stared. “You are foolish, thus you fell in love with me?”

  “If I wasn’t foolish, why would I fall in love with you?” Nisse had an innocent, puzzled look on her face.

  “Oh!” Irritated, Bebe slapped his head. Why was it that he could never overcome Nisse in these debates?

  The nearby Linley and the other two, hearing this exchange, couldn’t help but begin to laugh.

  Bebe turned his head, looking at Linley in surprise. “Boss.”

  “Heh heh, you keep chatting. We’ll sit over here.” Linley laughed as he spoke. All of the tables here were fairly small, circular tables. They could sit three people. Even four people would find it to be rather crowded.

  Linley, Delia, and Salomon sat down in a corner of the hall.

  “Linley, Bebe really is rather adorable.” Salomon laughed. And then, he paused for a long moment, as though considering something. Suddenly, he stretched out his Godrealm, covering Linley and Delia within the reach of his Godrealm.

  “Huh?” Linley and Delia looked at Salomon, puzzled.

  Salomon laughed, “Delia, Linley, there’s something I want to tell you. However, I can’t let others hear this. Thus…I am completely shutting out the sound.”

  Linley and Delia looked towards Salomon in astonishment. What was there to be so secretive about?

  “There are very few people who know this rumor. However, over these six years, my little sister and your little brother, Bebe, have become quite close to each other. And so, I’m going to tell you this rumor.” Salomon’s face grew very solemn.

  “Rumor?” Linley and Delia were both puzzled.

  Salomon said slowly, “Do you know where this escort mission started off from?”

  “Started off from?” Linley frowned. “Wasn’t it in Royalwing City?”

  “No.” Salomon shook his head. “Based on what I have heard, the escort mission started off in the distant Peakstone Prefecture!”

  “Peakstone Prefecture?” Linley was greatly shocked.

  Peakstone Prefecture was a prefecture in the west part of the Redbud Continent, while Nightblaze Prefecture was in the center of the Redbud Continent. As for the Rainbow Prefecture, it was in the east part of the Redbud Continent.

  “Right.” Salomon said solemnly. “According to rumor, on the way over, the escorts suffered an enemy attack on the way over, and virtually all the Fiends died. Only a few were left. Therefore, the employer hired another group of Fiends in our Royalwing City.”

  Linley and Delia were both shocked.

  “You knew this, but you still came?” Linley immediately discovered a problem in this.

  “First of all, it is only a rumor.” Salomon immediately laughed bitterly as he spoke. “And second of all, I only heard this rumor half a year ago.”

  Linley immediately came to the conclusion; everyone had headed out six years ago. Since Salomon had heard it only half a year ago, then it seemed he had heard this from others in the metallic lifeform.

  “This is just a rumor.” Linley said.

  Salomon shook his head, lowering his voice. “Don’t disbelieve it. Think about it. Why would they have us gather in the restaurant and be afraid to let us openly and publicly gather at the main gates? We waited until nightfall, then quickly and stealthily slipped into the metallic lifeform. Before we even had a chance to get our footing, the metallic lifeform immediately began to move.”

  Hearing this, Linley began to think that it made sense.

  “Therefore, it’s best to be cautious.” Salomon said softly. “If we really run into any danger, those enemies won’t be too vicious to us. We can immediately scatter and flee. Saving our lives matters the most. The failure of the mission just means that we won’t get compensation.”

  Linley and Delia both nodded slightly.

  And then, Salomon released his Godrealm. The two began to casually chat and drink.

  Suddenly…

  A divine sense swept across the entire metallic creature! Linley and Delia didn’t notice it at all. Only, Salomon’s face changed dramatically, and he let out a low growl, “A divine sense scan?”

  “Divine sense scan?” Linley was shocked as well.

  Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 3, Probe

  Linley, Salomon, and the others instantly disappeared from the round table, reappearing at the translucent window. They all looked out through the translucent window…

  In mid-air, there were hundreds of figures standing there, with the leader being a tall, slender figure with hair that was graying but a face which was exceedingly handsome. He seemed like a young man, and he had a sword on his back.

  “Carrying a sword on his back?” Linley was puzzled.

  In the Infernal Realm, very few experts would carry their weapons on their bodies. Most of them would keep them stored in their interspatial rings.

  “So many Highgods!” The handsome youth’s face suddenly changed slightly as well. As the leader of an extremely famous bandit group within a circumference of a million kilometers, he knew exactly which caravans could be robbed and which ones could not.

  “Lord, shall we attack?” A God behind him said quietly.

  The handsome youth didn’t hesitate at all, immediately turning. “Attack? Your brain has problems. Everyone, retreat!” Instantly, the hundreds of bandits all fled downwards at high speed.

  As for the metallic lifeform, without being affected at all, it continued to make its way forward.

  Within the metallic creature.

  Linley’s group returned to their original seats, and that Salomon laughed calmly. “Looks like I was a bit too nervous. Those bandits are far more cowardly than I had imagined. Those people immediately fled before our people even went outside.”

  Linley laughed as well.

  Just then, he really had been quite startled.

&n
bsp; When Salomon had said there was a divine sense probe, but he himself hadn’t discovered it, naturally that meant that the prober was a Highgod. To Linley, a Highgod was someone he had to be cautious about.

  “Mr. Salomon.” Delia laughed. “Don’t worry too much. No matter how powerful the bandits are, our metallic lifeform has Mr. Learmonth, right? With him, it’s not necessary for us to worry.” Delia wasn’t too worried.

  Salomon nodded in agreement.

  “Delia, you can’t say that.” Linley said.

  “Oh?” Delia looked at Linley.

  Linley warned, “Bandits groups are virtually all made up of Gods. Generally speaking, bandit groups that have a Highgod are top of the line groups. If a bandit group is so powerful as to have multiple Highgods, then the number of Gods in that group will also be exceedingly large.”

  Salomon and Delia both nodded.

  They all saw how that bandit group just now had a single Highgod, but hundreds of others.

  “If they really attack, true, we don’t need to fear the experts amongst them, as Learmonth and the others will deal with them. But with enemy forces being so numerous, we might be faced with the combined attacks of a large group of Gods.” Linley said resignedly. “After all, we only have a hundred or so Gods.”

  Delia just came to this realization.

  If they truly ran into a chaotic group battle, then how many people could Learmonth kill by himself at the same time? And even if he was able to save Linley and the others, perhaps he wouldn’t even care to.

  They were neither family nor friends; why save them?

  “It seems it is still best for us to be careful.” Delia said.

  “Boss, what are you all talking about?” Bebe and Nisse walked over together.

  When Linley looked at Bebe and Nisse, he couldn’t help but start to laugh. “Bebe, I’ve discovered that you and Nisse actually look rather similar.”

  “What?” Bebe looked confused, and then a look of sudden understanding appeared on his face. “Oh, I get it. Boss, have you discovered that you and Delia also look rather similar?”

  Linley was startled. He couldn’t help but share a glance with Delia.

  Husband and wife would naturally have a bit of the same aura.

  “This is known as, ‘spouses look alike’. Thus, Nisse and I look rather similar.” Bebe’s eyes fluttered as he looked at Nisse. “Nisse, am I right?”

  Nisse snorted, but her eyes had a hint of delight in them as well.

  Linley and Salomon exchanged a glance, then laughed. Bebe and Nisse…it seemed the two of them really did have a possibility of being together.

  ……………..

  The metallic lifeform’s journey was very peaceful. Linley’s group spent most of their time in training. Although Royalwing City and their destination, Bluemaple City, were four billion kilometers apart, that was if they travelled in a straight line. Linley’s group did not, however, travel in a straight line. They had to avoid some dangerous areas.

  In the blink of an eye, another four years passed. In Linley and Delia’s room.

  “Whew.” Linley opened his eyes.

  Delia seemed to have sensed something, and she opened her eyes as well. “Linley, why did you stop training?”

  “Delia, I’ve reached a bottleneck in my training of the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ in the Elemental Laws of the Wind.” Linley said with a strange expression.

  “Bottleneck? How is that possible?” Delia was greatly startled.

  Generally speaking, only after reaching the very end would a bottleneck appear when one was training in a profound mystery of the Laws. During the early and middle stages, one might be slow but one wouldn’t encounter any bottlenecks.

  “Linley, last time, didn’t you say that it would take you another twenty or thirty years to completely fuse them?” Delia asked.

  “Delia, four years ago, I guessed that I would need another twenty years before reaching a bottleneck, and then a few more years to break through the bottleneck to achieve mastery!” Linley shook his head and laughed. “But I was wrong. The profound mysteries of the Laws aren’t what I took them to be; I thought that the further I went along, the harder it would be.”

  “I didn’t train in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects separately. I compare and contrast them against each other and train them together.”

  “At first, it was true that I needed more and more time, but as I trained to the later stages and continued to compare, contrast, and hypothesize, my breakthrough speed actually increased. The ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects are akin to two roads which first start off in opposite directions, and so the further you walk along them, the more distant each road will be come. However, when reaching a certain distance, the two will begin to draw close to each other. As you compare and contrast them, the two roads will draw nearer and nearer, and now, I’ve already reached the end stages of fusing them together.” Linley shook his head. “Only, I’ve become stuck in this training bottleneck.”

  Delia began to understand it generally.

  As a God of the wind-style, Delia also had trained in the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ profound mysteries.

  However, Delia was not able to make them fuse, nor did she understand…how the ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ profound mysteries, seemingly opposites, could be fused together.

  “Come, let’s go get some food.” Linley wasn’t going to try and force it. Upon reaching a bottleneck, he would first relax and then train later.

  “Another divine sense?” Linley suddenly frowned.

  Just now, a God-level divine sense swept over the metallic lifeform.

  Delia laughed. “On the way over, we’ve encountered so many probes. Even Gods dare to use their divine sense to probe us. Most likely, if they found that we are very weak, they would immediately come to attack and loot us.”

  “Forget them.” Linley was irritated with these bandit groups as well.

  The people in this metallic lifeform had become accustomed to the divine sense probes of these bandit groups. They couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them. After all, they knew…that if they were to leave the metallic lifeform to attack the bandits, they probably wouldn’t be able to catch that many.

  Today, yet another Highgod divine sense swept across the metallic lifeform.

  But the Fiends inside the metallic lifeform continued to drink, to train, to chat. Nobody cared.

  “Everyone, disperse!”

  A youth with curly silver hair led his hundred subordinates to rush down and flee, retreating into the depths of the mountain valleys below.

  “Whoooosh!” The metallic creature didn’t slow down in the slightest, disappearing into the horizons.

  But deep within a deep gorge.

  “Drip, drip…”

  Water flowed through the channels of a creek.

  “After waiting so many years, I’ve finally encountered you.” The youth with curly silver hair stood atop the pool of water. Behind him, a muscular black-robed man was standing respectfully.

  “Hayde!” The silver-haired youth said coldly.

  “Lord.” The black-robed man bowed.

  The silver-haired youth said seriously, “Immediately notify young master Inigo [Yi’ni’ge]. Tell him that we have discovered the squad where those two old fellows are in. As long as the young master knows that the metallic lifeform passed by our place, he will easily be able to judge the general direction it will head in next.”

  “Yes, milord.”

  The black-robed man nodded slightly.

  Hundreds of millions of kilometers away from the silver-haired youth, within Red Orchid City, there was a hotel that had been completely booked by a group of hundreds of people.

  In one of the courtyards within the hotel, there was a devilish youth with long, blood-red hair who was seated on a chair, flipping through a heavy tome. A nearby servant said respectfully, “Young master, Hayde is outside waiting to see you.”

  “Hayde?” The blood-red hai
red youth frowned. “Who is Hayde?”

  “One of our messengers.” The servant said respectfully.

  In the Infernal Realm, messages were usually carried by someone who had divine clones located in separate areas.

  For example, one might be in the Nightblaze Prefecture, while the other might be in the Rainbow Prefecture. Although there was a distance of billions of kilometers, since the two clones really were the same person, anything one clone knew, the other one billions of kilometers away would also know.

  This was a fairly normal form of communication in the Infernal Realm.

  “We finally found those two old fellows?” The youth immediately was overjoyed. “Hurry up and have him come in.”

  “Yes.”

  A man who looked identically to the muscular black-robed man called ‘Hayde’ entered the courtyard, immediately falling respectfully to one knee. “Young master Inigo, Lord Padgett [Pa’ji’te] has instructed me to inform you, young master, that the metallic lifeforms carrying those two old fellows just passed by his location.”

  “Oh?”

  Inigo was instantly overjoyed. With a flip of his hand, an enormous detailed map appeared on the table.

  “Passed by Padgett? Then it seems the squad these two fellows are travelling in will pass through this place, the Nisiwan [Ni’si’wan] Mountain Range. Since they’ve selected this route, then…” Inigo stared at the map, a hint of a smile on his face.

  “The web I set up has finally found those two old fellows.”

  Inigo nodded slightly. “I don’t know how strong the Fiends which those two old fellows have recruited are. Right. I first have to probe them.”

  “Immediately sent a message back and tell Vionnaz [Wei’ao’na]. Have him prepare his forces and immediately go to the area near the Bulu [Bu’lu] River. Those two old fellows will definitely pass through his area.” Inigo immediately instructed his servant.

  “Yes, young master.” The servant immediately acknowledged and left.