Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”

  Twenty people were currently flying at a low altitude through the air.

  “Last time, we lost two Seven Star Fiends, but they didn’t lose a single one. This time, we definitely have to kill that Seven Star Fiend belonging to the Azure Dragon clan.” The leader, a tall, green-eyebrowed man, said in a solemn voice.

  “Elder Brother, this time, Elder Bulo [Bu’lo] will be with us. There definitely won’t be any problems.” Another person, a somewhat skinnier, green-eyebrowed man, laughed.

  These two siblings were both three meters tall, a typical example of a Barbary clan member. The only thing remarkable about them was their green eyebrows. ‘The Green Eyebrow Brothers’ of the Barbary clan were a pair of very famous Seven Star Fiends, and were exceedingly strong.

  As for Bulo…

  His fame was widespread in the Netherworld, and he was one of the supreme experts of the Ashcroft clan. For three commanders to be sent on this mission was because this time, the clans were determined to avenge the previous humiliation.

  It didn’t matter if their people died.

  But two Seven Star Fiends of theirs died without killing a single Seven Star Fiend of the enemy? There was no way the eight great clans would accept this!

  The tall, powerful green-eyebrowed man turned to look at the person next to them. He couldn’t help but feel his heart tremble. This person was just 1.7 meters tall, and in the eyes of the Barbary clan, such a person was just a ‘tiny little fellow’.

  But…nobody dared to look down this person.

  His entire body was covered in a long gray robe. He was bald, and his dry, wavy hair was slick against his head. His hair seemed yellow and dry, as though it had no life in it at all. His face was covered in frowns and wrinkles, giving him an ancient appearance, at in his ears hung a pair of green serpents.

  “Hiss…” Those two green serpents were speaking in the serpentine language.

  “I hope that this time, the Azure Dragon clan sent out that person named Linley!” Bulo opened his eyes, which were of a very muddy color, with some occasional yellow light flashing through them. He said in a hoarse voice, “Last time, it was he who killed my grandson.”

  “If Linley goes, then Elder Bulo, we will definitely let you personally deal with him.” The skinny, green-eyebrowed man said hurriedly. Mosley had been Bulo’s grandson.

  “Right.” Bulo nodded.

  The green-eyebrowed siblings, although powerful members of the Barbary clan, in terms of status…were just middling amongst their Assembly of Elders. But this Bulo was different; Elder Bulo’s status in the Ashcroft family was extremely high.

  In terms of power, he was within the top three for his clan as well. For the Ashcroft clan to send him out meant that, clearly, this time they were determined to kill the Azure Dragon clan’s forces.

  “I wonder how this Linley compares with that Genius Elder, ‘Blue’, of the Azure Dragon clan.” Elder Bulo chuckled.

  “He’s definitely inferior.” The tall, green-eyebrowed man said. “Although that Linley has a tough body, it seems his soul defense isn’t that great…far weaker than that Genius Elder. For you to kill him, Elder Bulo, he should feel honored.”

  Bulo, as a member of the Ashcroft clan, was a soul attack specialist to begin with. At the same time…his body was also extremely powerful.

  Anyone capable of being in the top three of one of the great clans was a person of terrifying power.

  That year, when Bulo had battled with the ‘Genius Elder’, Blue, neither had been able to kill the other.

  If Linley and Emanuel had known that this time, the enemies had sent out this many experts, and especially that Bulo was amongst them, they probably would have retreated long ago. But Linley and Emanuel didn’t know…so naturally, they continued to advance.

  Within that black panther shaped metallic lifeform. Linley was currently drinking wine with a Highgod.

  “It’s been half a year. The eight great clans really are inefficient.” Linley sighed.

  “Captain, the eight great clans live at the borders of Indigo Prefecture. They are hundreds of millions of kilometers away from us. Even if they are efficient and fast, they’ll still need half a year before making their way to us. If they are slow, it might even take them one or two years.” That squad member said.

  Linley glanced at this squad member.

  This squad member was named ‘Isadore’ [Yi’sa’duo]. During the last attack, some members of Linley’s Squad Thirteen had been lost. Although Shanda and the others still had divine clones, the power of those divine clones was insufficient, and so they retired from Bloodbath Gorge.

  Isadore was one of the replacements.

  “Isadore, be careful during the battle.” Linley laughed. When he had gone and informed Squad Thirteen that this time, he only needed to be one person, Isadore had very excitedly convinced the others to allow himself to be the one to accompany Linley.

  “I know, Captain.” Isadore’s eyes were gleaming. “But Captain, although I have to protect myself, I need to kill our enemies as well. Over the past ten thousand years, I’ve been waiting for this day the entire time…the forces of the eight great clan were merciless in their pursuit of us that year. When our Four Divine Beasts clan was powerful, they all cowered before us, but now that our ancestors are dead, they begin attacking like wild dogs. Men, women, the elderly, the young…they’ll wipe out any member of our Four Divine Beasts clan!”

  Isadore’s heart was filled with anger and hate.

  Linley couldn’t help but sigh. “This hatred and enmity truly has become a great one!” That year, each of the great clans had wildly pursued and attacked, all the way to Indigo Prefecture. This had been a very major event. When Linley had just arrived in Indigo Prefecture and been buying books, even that staff member had known that the Four Divine Beasts clan was engaging in a major battle.

  Within the dragon-shaped metallic lifeform.

  “Everyone, be careful. The enemy can appear at any moment.” Emanuel said quietly. “Remember. Don’t permit anyone to draw near our metallic lifeform. Anyone who draws near, be it Demigod or God, will be executed.”

  Last time, Linley had relied upon drawing close to the metallic lifeform before launching a sudden ambush, thus causing Emanuel to be wary as well.

  “Haha…” Nearby, Linley’s Deathgod Golem began to laugh. The Deathgod Golem had Linley’s consciousness within, and it could thus be considered one of Linley’s clones, in a way.

  “There’s nothing funny about it, Elder Linley. You were able to hide your strength. Perhaps others can do the same. It’s best to be cautious.” Emanuel said.

  “Yes. It’s best to be cautious.” The Deathgod Golem spoke in Linley’s voice.

  Right at this moment…

  “Not good! The enemy arrived!” Emanuel’s face changed, and he instantly collected this metallic lifeform. Immediately, the eleven of them and the Deathgod Golem were now hovering in mid-air. Linley, through the Deathgod Golem, was able to see everything clearly. On the ground below them, twenty-plus figures were charging up at high speed.

  “So many?” Emanuel’s face changed dramatically.

  “Elder Linley!” Emanuel immediately urged. “Hurry over.”

  “Don’t worry.” The Deathgod Golem said.

  “Haha…child of the Azure Dragon clan, you can die now.” Amidst the loud laughter, two tall, powerfully built green-eyebrowed men who looked similar charged up, wielding double-edged greatswords in their hands. Behind them, twenty five Six Star Fiends attacked as well.

  Emanuel’s face became ugly to behold.

  The difference in power was too great.

  “Roaaaaaar!!!”

  Emanuel let out a fierce roar, and his entire body became covered in draconic scales. Instantly, he entered Dragonform, while at the same time, a white mist spread out from around his body, covering the entire area and making all sorts of illusions appear.

  “We ar
en’t weaker than you in the Elemental Laws of Water.”

  The Green Eyebrow Brothers laughed loudly as they surrounded and attacked Emanuel.

  “Slash!” “Bang!”

  The twenty five Six Star Fiends of the eight great clans attacked the ten Six Star Fiends of the Azure Dragon clan. The difference in numbers was simply too great…the Six Star Fiends wildly battled against each other, and exploding sounds thundered nonstop. The air trembled, blood splattered everywhere, and one figure after another fell from the skies.

  “Bang!” Emanuel’s right arm exploded, and he was knocked flying backwards.

  “Die!” An indistinct, freezing light flashed towards him.

  Right at this moment, Emanuel suddenly opened his mouth. The strange thing was, behind him appeared an enormous coiling illusion of an Azure Dragon. The enormous Azure Dragon Phantom was like the size of a mountain, and it stared at the two Seven Star Fiends with its illusory eyes.

  “Not good.”

  The faces of the Green Eyebrow Twins changed.

  “Retreat!” The two retreated towards different directions at the same time at high speed.

  But at the same time, an indistinct azure light rippled outwards through space as though it were water, and the ripples instantly struck the two Green Eyebrow Brothers, and their bodies both trembled.

  Innate divine ability – Dragon Roar!

  “Captain!” The Six Star Fiends of the eight great clans saw that their captains were in danger.

  “Raaaaaargh!” All of them hurriedly charged towards Emanuel. There was a difference between a Six Star Fiend and a Seven Star Fiend, but when several Six Star Fiends joined forces against a Seven Star Fiend, the Seven Star Fiend couldn’t be complacent either.

  Emanuel had no choice but to retreat, while at the same time, he cursed mentally, “Why hasn’t Linley arrived yet?”

  The Green Eyebrow Brothers had retreated towards different directions, trying to put some distance between each other, so as to force the scope of the innate divine ability, ‘Dragon Roar’, to be wider, and thus lessen the power of the attack. At this moment, that larger, taller green-eyebrowed man laughed angrily. “This innate divine ability really is powerful.”

  And then, they charged over as well.

  But right at this moment…

  The green-eyebrowed man noticed one of his subordinates was frantically messaging him through divine sense, “Captain, careful!”

  The green-eyebrowed man hurriedly turned to look. He saw a Dragonformed figure flying towards him at high speed, with a pair of dark golden eyes staring fixedly at him. What shocked this green-eyebrowed man was, the newcomer actually had fierce, sharp spikes on his back!

  “He is Linley!” The green-eyebrowed man was immediately shocked to his senses.

  Linley’s unique Dragonform, after he had killed those two Seven Star Fiends, had been made known to the high level members of the eight great clans.

  “Flee!” The green-eyebrowed man immediately turned to flee.

  At this time, an earthen yellow light spread out, forming an enormous sphere of earthen yellow light. The green-eyebrowed Seven Star Fiend, just a hundred meters away from Linley, was naturally trapped within that area, and a terrifying gravity was applied to his body.

  His speed slowed drastically!

  “Aaaargh!” Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to flee, the green-eyebrowed man turned and delivered a full force sword blow towards Linley.

  An illusory, translucent sword shadow flew out of his greatsword, shooting straight towards Linley. Linley didn’t have any time to dodge, and he didn’t try to dodge! He still charged straight towards that green-eyebrowed man. As that translucent sword shadow pierced not Linley’s body, Linley also delivered a vicious, smashing fist blow against the head of the green-eyebrowed man.

  “BANG!”

  The head was shattered, and the divine spark flew out.

  “Big Brother!” The distant, skinnier green-eyebrowed man, upon seeing this, couldn’t help but call out in agony.

  On a distant mountaintop, Elder Bulo, who hadn’t been planning to get involved, couldn’t help but raise his head and stare, his eyes gleaming. “So he is Linley. Hmph. Those idiots from the Barbary clan. As soon as they meet someone with a tough body, they are useless.”

  Elder Bulo’s lips trembled slightly.

  Instantly…

  An enormous phantom in the shape of a black serpent appeared behind Elder Bulo. This enormous black serpent covered the entire mountain. Its body was so enormous as to be astonishing. A terrifying aura suddenly filled the skies.

  After having just killed a Seven Star Fiend, Linley, for some reason, felt a sense of fear in his heart.

  Linley turned to stare below him, and he saw Elder Bulo staring at him coldly. The shadowy illusion of that enormous black serpent, in particular, caused Linley to unconsciously think about what he had seen last time.

  “Not good. This is the innate divine ability, ‘Soul Extinguisher’.” Linley’s face changed dramatically.

  Last time, his subordinate had rescued him, but this time, there was nobody near him.

  Book 17, Indigo Prefecture – Chapter 31, A Battle of Sovereign’s Mights

  The speed of this innate divine ability, ‘Soul Extinguisher’, was simply too fast. On the ground, that balding Elder Bulo stared coldly as his lips moved slightly. Behind him hovered that enormous illusion of a black serpent, which only had a single, solitary red eye, and the eye was staring fixedly at Linley.

  A crack appeared in Elder Bulo’s forehead, between his eyebrows, and a translucent light instantly slashed through the skies, piercing into the range of the ‘Blackstone Space’, shooting directly into Linley’s body. The speed was so fast that Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all.

  The innate divine ability of the Ashcroft clan – Soul Extinguisher!

  “Elder Linley!” The surviving Six Star Fiends of the Azure Dragon clan, upon seeing this, were all stunned.

  “Bastard.” The skinny, green-eyebrowed man ground his teeth as he stared at Linley, rage still burning in his heart. Just now, it had been Linley who had killed his older brother. “It’s your luck that I wasn’t able to kill you myself.”

  From afar, as Emanuel saw this, his eyes lit up. “The Azure Dragon ring!”

  Emanuel immediately flew towards Linley at high speed.

  Within the limitless space in Linley’s mind, outside his sea of consciousness, there was that protective membrane of scales which was a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. This enormous membrane had a single tiny flaw, and that flaw was its weakness.

  On the surface of the soul sea.

  Beneath the seven-colored sword-shaped soul, a Linley dressed in a light green robe was standing. This was Linley’s ‘divine wind clone’. When battling, Linley only brought out a single one of his divine clones.

  In the hands of his divine wind clone, there was a drop of azure water…water-type Sovereign’s Might.

  “Let’s see if you can break through. If you can break through, then I’ll be forced to use this Sovereign’s Might.” Linley had been prepared long ago, and he had his divine wind clone carry that drop of Sovereign’s Might at all times. As for the divine wind clone, within the soul sea, it was standing right next to that sword-shaped soul.

  Once danger came, his divine wind clone would immediately activate the drop of Sovereign’s Might and use it to protect the soul, as well as counter-attack.

  “Crunch!”

  That translucent ray of light shot out at incomparable speed, as straight as an arrow, piercing forward, drilling down with vicious precision against that semi-translucent scaled membrane. It was so fast and so vicious…that it was definitely the most powerful attack that Linley had ever encountered.

  Crack!

  Like an egg striking a stone, the ray of light struck directly atop the scaled membrane, and then it completely shattered apart.

  “Eh? This is the Soul Extinguisher?” Linley was
stunned. “How come it didn’t hurt me at all. Even that simple soul attack which Mosley had used was more dangerous to me than this innate divine ability.”

  “It seems as though this attack doesn’t have any sentience at all.”

  Indeed. Innate divine ability were very rigid, fixed types of attacks. For example, the ‘Godeater’ ability could only be used to devour divine sparks. If it succeeded, it succeeded. If it failed, it failed. The ‘Soul Extinguisher’ could only shoot forward, using raw, brute force to shatter anything that blocked in its path, then extinguished the enemy’s soul.

  It was the same for Dylin and Tarosse’s innate divine abilities. The power was great, but the abilities were very rigid.

  Once these innate divine abilities were activated, they would consume quite a bit of spiritual energy. You couldn’t use less spiritual energy if you wanted to. They were extremely rigid.

  For soul attacks, sentience actually didn’t matter too much.

  This was because generally speaking, if a Highgod had a ‘soul-protecting divine artifact’, it would protect all parts of the soul. For example, Bebe. His soul-protecting divine artifact protected every part of his soul. There were no ‘weak spots’…and thus, sentience didn’t matter.

  One simply had to use raw power to break through. That was enough.

  This was true for the ‘Soul Extinguisher’ as well. Unfortunately, what Linley possessed was a damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Aside from that flaw, the defensive strength of the other areas was exactly the same as a normal soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.

  A Highgod, break through the defense of a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact with his attack?

  In his dreams!

  Thus…this technique by a supreme expert, ‘Bulo’, failed.

  Linley stood there in the boundless skies, in the center of a sphere of earthen yellow light that was five hundred meters in diameter. On the ground, that balding, ancient Elder ‘Bulo’ raised his head to stare at Linley. That originally cold, sinister expression of his gradually changed into astonishment.