Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  He waited.

  After roughly twenty seven days, yet another pitch black night came.

  Jenkin silently pushed aside the grass, staring at his surroundings. After ascertaining no one was nearby, he once more came out of the tunnel, transforming into a gust of wind and silently advancing towards the east. This time, roughly two hours later, he encountered yet another metallic lifeform.

  But when he flew over at high speed and sent an entreaty, he was once more refused and shouted at angrily.

  Jenkin didn’t feel any disappointment in his heart at all, and didn’t even feel much of an emotional impact at all. As Jenkin saw it, every single chance had to be treasured. Failure was nothing. If he didn’t even try, then he would definitely fail. Jenkin continued to stealthily travel forward.

  After roughly an hour, yet another metallic lifeform flew over towards the east.

  Jenkin immediately raised his head, once more chasing over at high speed. Up ahead was a fairly small metallic lifeform. Clearly, there were very few people inside. Generally speaking, if there were few people within a metallic lifeform, the people within would be fairly close family or friends who usually wouldn’t allow a stranger to join them.

  However, without at least making an attempt, Jenkin wouldn’t give up.

  Immediately spreading out his divine sense, Jenkin found two Gods within. “Milords, I am only a God. I hope you can help me and give me a ride.” If he was refused and yelled at again, Jenkin wouldn’t mind at all, nor would his mental state be disturbed.

  However…

  This metallic lifeform actually came to a sudden halt.

  Jenkin immediately halted as well, nervously looking at the metallic lifeform, afraid that the people inside would come out to kill him. However, Jenkin consoled himself, “That won’t happen. People who ride metallic lifeforms will encounter bandits and shout at them to leave. They’ve already become accustomed to not killing people who don’t pose a threat to them.”

  “Boss, this fellow is quite interesting. He actually asks people to give him a ride.” A voice rang out from within, while at the same time, an entrance to the metallic lifeform opened up.

  “Then let him in.”

  A gentle yet ordinary voice rang out, but this voice caused Jenkin’s calm heart to instantly swell with emotion. A look of shock and joy suddenly exploded forth from his eyes. Jenkin was certain that he would never forget this voice for the rest of his life.

  “My Boss is letting you in. Hurry up and come in.” A figure wearing a straw hat appeared at the entrance.

  “Thank you, milord.” Jenkin immediately flew over, entering the metallic lifeform.

  The internals of the metallic lifeform was very soft and comfortable. Aside from several rooms in the back, there was a living room in the center, with wine, tables, and chairs. There was even a place to view the outside scenery. Jenkin said to himself, “This is what the upper class of the Infernal Realm live like!”

  At the same time, Jenkin saw a young couple in front of him.

  The young man had a head of long brown hair and wore a sky-blue robe, and his eyes contained a hint of a smile. He appeared fairly friendly and amiable. The woman behind him caused Jenkin to be shocked. This woman was beautiful, but…Jenkin couldn’t sense her aura at all.

  “She is a Highgod, and a Highgod Fiend?” Jenkin instantly noticed the Fiend medallion, while at the same time he noticed the Fiend medallions of the other two. Jenkin now began to understand why this metallic lifeform dared to roam the Infernal Realm without danger.

  Because a Highgod Fiend was present.

  With mild interest, Linley glanced at this slightly pudgy yet very friendly looking youth.

  “Hey, you can sit over there.” Bebe said casually.

  Delia asked, “Why did you ask us to give you a ride?” Not only was Linley curious; Delia and Bebe were curious as well.

  Jenkin said hurriedly, “Milords, my name is Jenkin. As to why I asked you to help out, actually, this story starts from when I first entered the Infernal Realm. When I entered the Infernal Realm, I was tossed out by the Redbud Army, and I joined a very ordinary tribe. I imagine you all know that earning money in a tribe is a very slow affair. In ten thousand years, you’d probably only earn a few dozen inkstones.”

  “A few dozen?” Linley frowned slightly.

  When he had lived in the Black Dragon Tribe, every ten thousand years, there was more than a thousand inkstones to be earned. However, Linley immediately realized that this was because of the Gerrard Black Dragons. Otherwise, other tribes wouldn’t have allied to attack them either. Ordinary tribes who had to rely on forging divine artifacts or divine gems to earn money really were limited to just a few dozen inkstones every ten thousand years.

  “Also, in the Infernal Realm, battles are very frequent. An ordinary tribe might survive for a million years or even longer, but it also might be destroyed in just a few thousand years.” Jenkin said bitterly. “If I was an ordinary citizen, perhaps after defeat in battle, I could join another tribe. But I am a God. I was forcibly recruited to become a warrior for the tribe. In every battle, the majority of the casualties occurred amongst the warriors!”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  When he had been in the Black Dragon Tribe, a tribe with a fairly powerful backer, whether or not one became a warrior was a matter of choice. Clearly, they didn’t care too much about warriors. But for many of the weaker tribes, Gods were forcibly recruited to become soldiers.

  “Within ten thousand years, I experienced being in two tribes.” Jenkin shook his head. “I realized that this can’t continue. I was barely lucky enough to survive the first battle, but would I have that sort of luck again? After planning for a long time, I quietly slipped out of the tribe and began to head towards the Amethyst Mountains. However, my tribe was tens of millions of kilometers away from the Amethyst Mountains, and there are a very high amount of bandits on the way. All I could do was wait for the skies to become completely dark before carefully advancing.”

  Linley, hearing this, began to understand.

  At the same time, he could imagine how much hardship this Jenkin had suffered on the way over.

  “Why are you going to the Amethyst Mountains?” Bebe asked.

  Jenkin said hurriedly, “I heard of them and learned that the Amethyst Mountains have ‘amethysts’ in them. I wanted to go harvest amethysts. Amethysts are very valuable. I can make six or seven thousand inkstones by selling one. This is much better than just staying in a tribe.”

  Linley immediately began to laugh. “You’ve heard of it? But do you know about the regulations regarding mining in the Amethyst Mountains?”

  Linley had read some general information regarding the Infernal Realm. Naturally, he knew about the famous ‘Amethyst Mountains’ of the Redbud Continent. Because of this, Linley was actually planning to make a tourism trip while passing through the Amethyst Mountains.

  The Amethyst Mountains had a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. It was the only area in the Redbud Continent which produced amethysts.

  “Requirements?” Jenkin shook his head. How could people in the tribes learn of these things?

  “How could just anyone be allowed to mine in a precious place like this? These areas are jointly guarded by multiple major clans.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

  Jenkin’s face became unsightly, but he said hurriedly, “Impossible. The Amethyst Mountains is such a precious area and so vast. How could a few clans completely seal it off?” Many people were still able to sneak into some precious areas at the risk of losing their lives.

  “Of course, there is another method. Pay five thousand inkstones, and you can enter to go mine.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

  Harvesting amethysts was extremely hard. Sometimes, a thousand years would pass without being able to encounter any. But of course, if you were lucky, you might find several on one trip.

  “Five thousand inkstones?” Jenkin’s face tu
rned ashen. He had only been in the Infernal Realm for ten thousand years. His entire networth was less than a hundred inkstones.

  Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 30, The Fog Sea

  The metallic lifeform moved like a flash of light, streaking at high speed towards the east.

  Within the living room of the metallic lifeform, Linley and Delia were seated facing each other, while Bebe and Jenkin were seated facing each other. Everyone was chatting casually.

  “My homeland? It is a far more complicated place than yours.” Jenkin’s face was all smiles right now, so very different from the look of dread it had when he had been fleeing and travelling. “In addition, my homeland’s continent is fairly large. From the north to the south, it stretches at least a hundred thousand kilometers.”

  Linley nodded slightly. The Yulan continent, from north to south, stretched only twenty or thirty thousand kilometers. Jenkin’s homeland was indeed much larger than the Yulan continent.

  “Our place was primarily divided into three forces. The first type included the human societies, the second included the beastmen clans, and the final one included the aquatic races! There’s all sorts of religions there. Haha, I’m afraid you are going to laugh at me when I say this, but I actually had my own church amongst the humans and amongst the beastmen!”

  Jenkin laughed. “Those beastmen had no idea that the Deity they worshipped was actually a human.”

  Linley, Delia, and Bebe had been bored with their journey, and so they were happy to listen to Jenkin tell them some tales from his own material plane. It had to be said that Jenkin’s material plane, although not having as many complicated secrets as the Yulan continent, had far more people, Saints, and religions, all of which engaged in battle, while the various races warred against each other as well.

  “Oho! I had no idea.” Bebe chortled. “So in your own material plane, you were actually such an amazing figure.”

  Jenkin’s story did indeed have a rather ‘legendary’ feel.

  “Alas.” Jenkin sighed. “But when one stands at the pinnacle of the continent, one feels lonely!”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  Actually, the vast majority of the experts who left the material planes for the Higher Planes did so out of loneliness!

  “I knew very well how dangerous the Infernal Realm was, but I still chose to come. However, the degree of danger here in the Infernal Realm is far greater than I ever imagined.” Jenkin said gratefully, “If it hadn’t been for you three helping out, I wouldn’t even have been able to come up with five thousand inkstones.”

  Jenkin wasn’t able to scrounge up five thousand inkstones, but to Linley’s group, five thousand inkstones was like a single hair on the body of nine bulls. While chatting with him, Linley’s group had felt that Jenkin was a fine fellow, and so Bebe had magnanimously agreed to help Jenkin pay that five thousand inkstone fee.

  The tens of millions of kilometers passed without incident. Roughly a month or so later, Linley’s group arrived at the legendary Amethyst Mountains!

  “This is the Amethyst Mountains?” Linley stood in front of the metallic lifeform. Peering through the metallic lifeform’s translucent windows, he could clearly see the vast, borderless Amethyst Mountains.

  The Amethyst Mountains covered a great expanse of land, with a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. In the Infernal Realm, a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers actually wasn’t too extravagant an amount of land, but it still stretched as far as one could see with the naked eye. In a single glance, all one could see was endless mountains, stretching off into the distance.

  At the same time, a white fog floated above the Amethyst Mountains.

  The strange thing was, it was only possible to see the fog. It wasn’t possible to see the Amethyst Mountains.

  “Indeed, as it was said in the books, the Amethyst Mountains, despite being a mountain range, is also known as the ‘Fog Sea’. From the outside, one can’t see so much as a single rock. All one can see is an endless amount of white mist.” Linley sighed as he spoke, while the nearby Jenkin, Delia, and Bebe all stared, spellbound, at the beautiful sight before them.

  An area of hundreds of thousands of kilometers, completely covered by coiling white mists. The light of the Blood Sun shone down from the skies into the white mist, creating brilliant scenes and colors that were indeed pleasing to behold.

  “How strange.” Delia exhaled in surprised. “This large mountain range of hundreds of thousands of kilometers is actually completely wrapped by countless amounts of white mist, in a way which is so tight. The mist has persisted for countless years without dissipating. It truly is odd.” Delia couldn’t understand it at all.

  Linley, Delia, and Bebe had at least learned some things from books regarding the Amethyst Mountains.

  As for Jenkin, he was completely lost.

  “This is the Amethyst Mountains?” Jenkin still couldn’t believe that this fog-shrouded area was the Amethyst Mountains.

  “Let’s go. We’re heading down now.” Linley, with a thought, made the metallic lifeform disappear into thin air. Linley, Delia, and Bebe all flew downwards, while Jenkin was caught slightly offguard at first, but he then quickly stabilized himself and also hurried downwards.

  The surface of the Amethyst Mountains was covered by the Fog Sea.

  Outside the Amethyst Mountains, however, there was a veritable flood of people flying about. The number was so staggeringly high that it could be described as shocking to hear. Many Deities remained at the borders of this Fog Sea, hoping to be lucky enough to encounter amethysts.

  On the surface area in the perimeter outside the Amethyst Mountains, within Linley’s line of vision, there were at least three ancient castles.

  As Linley’s group of four drew near, immediately, two middle-aged men dressed in black uniforms flew over. They couldn’t help but glance in Delia in surprise, clearly noticing that she was a Highgod Fiend. In their hearts, they were puzzled. “A Highgod Fiend would come here to harvest amethysts?”

  Highgod Fiends, when serving as escorts, would receive compensation far greater than what they could receive by mining amethysts. Generally speaking, only Demigods and Gods would come harvest amethysts.

  After realizing that Delia was a Highgod Fiend, the two immediately put on a noticeably better attitude. One of them, a golden-haired man, smiled and said, “Might I ask why you have come?”

  Bebe laughed and said, “The three of us are just going in to take a look. This kid here is coming to harvest amethysts.”

  “Oh?” The golden-haired man nodded. “The Amethyst Mountains are jointly governed by our eighteen clans. But of course, we won’t stop outsiders from going in. Whether for the purpose of tourism or for mining amethysts, all who enter will each pay five thousand inkstones.”

  Linley nodded slightly. The rule of paying an entrance fee of five thousand inkstones was a rule that had persisted for countless years. Even the record books had noted this.

  “What if you don’t have inkstones?” Jenkin suddenly asked.

  “Don’t have them?” The middle-aged man glanced at him sideways, then laughed calmly. “If you don’t have any, that’s fine as well. We can still let you in, but we won’t give you a writ of passage, so when you come out…you will have to pay us three amethysts!”

  “Writ of passage?” Linley raised an eyebrow.

  The golden-haired man nodded. “Right. Everyone who pays five thousand inkstones can receive a writ of passage. When you come out, as long as you return the writ of passage to us, you can leave.”

  Linley’s group now understood.

  “If you want to pay five thousand inkstones, please come to the centralized entrance point.” The golden-haired man pointed to a distant, gaudily built palace gate.

  Actually, the Amethyst Mountains were very vast. One could enter them by any point through the air or the land.

  “Remember. The writ of passage you receive has to be returned. I
f you want to flee….” The golden-haired man smiled. “Then you will suffer the attacks of the experts of our eighteen clans. Heh heh. Just a reminder, that’s all.”

  Linley laughed calmly. “Thank you.”

  Immediately, he led Delia, Bebe, and Jenkin towards that entrance.

  “Boss, that fellow seems to be rather arrogant. He keeps on saying ‘eighteen clans’ this and that.” Bebe muttered.

  “Bebe, don’t mind him.” Linley himself knew exactly how powerful these eighteen clans were. “The Redbud Continent has only a single amethyst mining area. This is an astonishing treasure site. You know how much an amethyst is worth. Can you imagine how many amethysts the Amethyst Mountains produce?”

  Bebe was startled.

  Amethysts? Every single Redbud Castle and Blacksand Castle had a large amount of amethysts for sale, so many that one couldn’t even count them all.

  “The ‘Amethyst Mountains’, which produces an inexhaustible amount of amethysts, is truly a treasure site! The wealth of any of the eighteen clans is far greater than that of the Boyd clan’s.” Linley sighed in amazement. “For the eighteen clans to be able to monopolize this treasure site, the Amethyst Mountains, has to mean that they have the support of an Asura. And what’s more, most likely there is more than just one Asura behind them!”

  The Amethyst Mountains was the only amethyst production site within the Redbud Continent, but the Redbud Continent had nearly twenty prefectures, which meant nearly twenty Asuras.

  If one just spent a little bit of time thinking about it, one would understand that the power of these eighteen clans had to be so great that not even a Seven Star Fiend like Elquin, much less an ordinary Highgod Fiend, would dare cause trouble for them!

  At the entrance to the Amethyst Mountains.

  “Alright, twenty thousand inkstones!” With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved two long azurite strips.

  The lady dressed in the long black uniform casually brought out four identical looking seals, giving one to each person in Linley’s group.