Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  “Whoosh!

  Shortly after they entered the cave, a stone board actually slammed down at the entrance, completely sealing it off from the outside world.

  The insides of the cave had actually been divided into several rooms, as well as a large living room.

  “What do you think? Stunned by the technique of Hom, eh?” Reisgem laughed as he sat down on a stone bench within the living room. “Let me make the formal introductions. Hom’s full name is Reihom Stonebreaker [Lei’hong]. He’s my good friend, and a trusted Emissary of my mother. Don’t be fooled by his silence; he’s quite clear-minded about things.”

  A rare hint of a smile appeared on the face of the big, tower-like fellow.

  Reihom Stonebreaker?

  Linley glanced at him, then laughed and said, “Linley Baruch.”

  “Hello, Linley.” Reihom’s voice thundered out, seeming to thrum and reverberate in that giant chest.

  “Haha, from today forward, the power of our hunting squad will have increased dramatically.” Reisgem excitedly slapped the table. “Bebe, your innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, is definitely the sharpest attack our squad possesses! Linley, how about your own innate divine ability? What percentage of the power of the Azure Dragon’s original innate divine ability does it possess?”

  Linley said with a calm laugh, “I can’t give you percentages. All my innate divine ability can do is to make time move tens of times slower for the enemy.”

  “Good. Haha, wonderful!” Reisgem excitedly rose to his feet, his eyes glowing with violet light.

  “Formidable.” The big, towering fellow rumbled in praise as well.

  “Linley, with this technique of yours, our hunting squad is going to be much more powerful.” Reisgem was very excited.

  Reisgem then grumbled unhappily, “This really pisses me off, actually. Over the years, Reihom and I encountered quite a few commanders, but they weren’t able to beat us and so they immediately ran away. Even when I use my Amethyst Space, if they wholeheartedly focus on fleeing, I’m unable to stop them. But if, at the critical moment, you were to use your innate divine ability on them, and then Reihom attacks, then we’ll definitely be able to kill the target.”

  Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

  He and Bebe both had extremely powerful innate divine abilities. Their only weakness was…their own, personal level of strength was rather lacking. Their attack power and defense power was insufficient. But after joining this squad, each made up for what the other lacked.

  “Haha…with the two of you! Our hunting squad will be able to dominate this Planar Battlefield! If anyone dares gets close to us, into the range of that innate divine ability of yours, Linley, they will be finished.” Reisgem was very happy. Actually, originally, he cared more about Bebe’s innate divine ability; it was that, combined with the fact that he had a pre-existing relationship with Linley, that made him extend the invitation.

  But now, he discovered that Linley’s innate divine ability was definitely the most superlative of supreme support abilities here on the Planar Battlefield.

  The Planar War would go on for nearly a thousand years. Linley’s group was in no rush. They stayed in the cave for three days before heading out, and during these three days, Linley also learned from Reisgem a few things regarding the commanders of the Planar Battlefield.

  “How many commanders would possibly dare to roam about the Planar Battlefield as they please? Only those with enough power would dare do a thing; otherwise, it would be lunacy.”

  “As for the weaker commanders, all of them are incredibly crafty. Many of them hide, not daring to reveal themselves, and rely on Deathgod Golems to scout. Upon encountering weak opponents, they’ll fight; upon encountering strong ones, they won’t come out.”

  “But of course, most form small squads of perhaps two, three, or even four or five. The most important thing in a squad is…mutual trust. Otherwise, if the squadmates begins to fight amongst themselves, that would be disastrous.”

  “Linley, Bebe, our target here in the Planar Battlefield is other squads! As for lone travelers? Heh heh. We won’t be able to kill the powerful ones, while the weak ones will be hiding and not dare reveal themselves. It will be very hard to kill one of them. It is best we engage in group battles against other squads. That will be more exciting, and also make it easier for us to gain badges.”

  Reisgem and Linley discussed quite a few things, and Linley now understood that their earlier strategy of hiding and ambushing was a very low efficiency strategy. This was because virtually everyone who dared to travel about alone was exceedingly powerful. Fortunately, Bebe had been able to use his innate divine ability to kill Lancelot! Otherwise, Linley wouldn’t have even a single badge.

  Linley, Bebe, Reisgem, and the silent Reihom continued to move forward.

  “Haha, there are very few people who know what the four of us look like. This will make it easier for us to catch some big fish.” Reisgem chortled. “Linley, once the enemy reaches a certain distance from us, your sole mission…will be to use your innate divine ability and make it impossible for him to flee for a period of time. The killing part? Leave that to us.”

  “Understood.” Linley let out a calm laugh.

  Linley had to admit, his soul attack, amongst commander-level experts, could only be considered ordinary. When Linley was fighting alongside Bebe, they used a similar strategy.

  “It’s hard to find people though.” Bebe stared at the surroundings and muttered.

  The Planar Battlefield was always so dark and cold. Raising his head, Linley looked at the multicolored spatial tears in the sky. That cold, howling wind swept through the battlefield as the four of them stealthily advanced. They didn’t hide, nor did they use Deathgod Golems; they just walked straight across.

  Linley frowned.

  “Reisgem, I think we’d best split up and maintain some distance from each other. Otherwise, if the four of us are always together, most likely the other commanders will not dare approach us and stay far away.” Linley said.

  “Split up? Then how would we coordinate?” Reisgem asked.

  Linley laughed. “How about this. The two of us will divide into two squads. Bebe and I will separate, but the two of us have connected souls and will be able to sense each other’s presences. Even if we can’t see each other, we will still be able to find each other.”

  “Good idea.” Reisgem nodded repeatedly.

  “Then…right, Linley, you follow me. Reihom, you go with Bebe. Our two squads will maintain a distance of three kilometers. If battle begins, we’ll be able to quickly cross this short distance.” Reisgem made the arrangements, and Linley and Bebe had no objections. They immediately split up.

  Linley and Bebe were able to sense each other’s locations, and thus, they were both able to sense the direction the other was headed.

  Less than half a day after they separated…

  “Boss, we found a target.” Bebe’s surprised, delighted voice rang out in Linley’s mind.

  Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 26, The First Battle

  Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.

  “Reisgem, they found a target!” Linley sent through divine sense, while transforming into a blur that flew at high speed towards Bebe’s location. “A target?” Reisgem was startled and delighted as well. His speed also increased, and he was actually a level faster than Linley. The distance of three kilometers was crossed in the twinkling of an eye.

  But by the time Linley and Reisgem arrived, they discovered that Bebe and Reihom were just standing there.

  “Bebe, what’s going on? The target?” Linley had a guess as to what happened.

  “That person was too crafty. As soon as I saw him, he immediately turned tail and fled instead of fighting back!” Bebe said helplessly, a bitter look on his face, while the nearby Reihom said in a deep voice, “The young master and I encountered this person not too long ago. As soon as this person saw me, he was so frightened he instantly fled
.”

  “We encountered him before?” Reisgem shook his head. “Forget it. He can just consider himself lucky.”

  “As I see it, Reihom, you should slightly change your body. Your appearance is simply too easily distinguishable.” Linley said with a laugh. The big fellow nodded slightly, then with a sound of acknowledgment, began to shrink from being a giant of four meters in height to an ordinary person two meters tall.

  Reisgem winked and laughed, “Hey, Hom, in this shape, it’s going to be quite hard to sit on your shoulders.

  Linley immediately thought back to how, when he had first seen Reisgem, Reisgem had been sitting on the giant’s shoulders.

  “Reisgem, let’s continue to head out.” Linley said with a laugh.

  “Right.” Reisgem nodded, then gritted his teeth. “Hmph. Hom and I have been in the Planar Battlefield for many years now, but we only have a single gold badge. This time, we have to get some more.” Reisgem and Reihom had both come from the Infernal Realm, and so belonged to the side of the Divine Darkness Plane.

  They, too, had crossed the Stellar River and arrived on this side.

  “You guys only have one as well?” Bebe couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Hmph, if I had your innate divine ability, I would’ve killed quite a few commanders already.” Reisgem said with a sniff. “Enough, let’s head out. Linley, the two of us will go this way!” Their forces separated once again. Because the geography of the Planar Battlefield was varied, with tall grass and hills everywhere, at a distance of three kilometers, it was generally not possible to see someone else.

  “Whoooosh.”

  A cold wind howled drearily, and two figures advanced, one in front, one in the back. The leader was a white-robed man with long jade hair that drooped all the way to his waist. He had an astonishingly, breathtakingly beautiful face, and his skin was almost crystalline and translucent, as though he were a jade statue. In addition, in the center of his forehead, there was the seal of a crescent moon.

  He quietly walked, casually glancing at his surroundings, as though this Planar Battlefield was his garden.

  Behind him was a female warrior dressed in armor.

  “Milord, should we be looking for a place to rest? All of those commanders have hidden themselves deeply. When they see you come, milord, all of them are so terrified they all scamper away.” The brown-haired female warrior said with a laugh.

  The jade-haired, white-robed handsome youth strolled forward and said, “Fine, then let’s just look for a place up ahead to rest. Mm? It seems as though we don’t need to be in a hurry to rest. We have some prey.” The white-robed youth’s lips crooked upwards, and the crescent moon in his forehead began to glow with green light.

  Linley’s group had been traveling for half a month now. Although they had encountered a few targets, when they took a close look, they found that the targets were just Deathgod Golems. They ran into five Deathgod Golems, but not a single person who had dared to reveal himself. But Linley’s group wasn’t discouraged at all.

  After all, there were only so many commanders to begin with. Some were in the army camps, while others were in hiding. There weren’t many who dared to roam around outside.

  “Those supreme experts…all of them are indeed almost flawless.” Linley chatted with Reisgem quite often over the course of their journey.

  Only now did Linley realize…that Reisgem actually only had a single Sovereign artifact; a Sovereign weapon! Only, Reisgem naturally possessed an extremely powerful body and powerful soul. Although his body was inferior to Bebe’s, his soul was far, far more powerful!

  Reisgem’s true body had 108 spikes atop it, and the Amethyst Mountains, which contained vast quantities of amethysts, also had 108 caves.

  Linley’s guess was…“The Redbud Sovereign and the Amethyst Mountains definitely have a unique connection to each other. Reisgem is pretty much the same! I can understand why his soul is so powerful. After all, the Amethyst Mountains are a place where countless amethysts are generated.” The Amethyst Mountains also had a large number of amethyst beasts, whose bodies were exceedingly tough. Naturally, Reisgem’s body was also tough.

  On the whole, Reisgem was very balanced!

  Even if he didn’t have a Sovereign artifact, he would still be very powerful. Combined with a Sovereign artifact, he was able to dominate the Planar Battlefield.

  “Those Sovereign’s Emissaries who acquire Sovereign artifacts use them to cover up their flaws.” Linley understood this principle.

  While Linley and Reisgem made their way through the Planar Battlefield, staring at their surroundings and looking for a target, Linley suddenly stared towards the front…up ahead, two figures had appeared, one in front, the other behind. The two had discovered Linley and Reisgem as well, and they simply stood there fearlessly, staring at them.

  “Oh, them?” Reisgem laughed.

  “Occluar [Ao’ke’lu’wei’er] of the Life Realm?” Linley was startled.

  Occluar was the genius of the ‘Divine Moon Elves’, and one of the highly ranked supreme experts of the Life Realm. He trained in the Edicts of Life, and was skilled in soul attacks. He could be considered a perfect counter for Linley!

  “Bebe, we have our target. Hurry over.” Linley hurriedly send through the soul bond.

  Linley and Bebe were able to communicate at a very great distance.

  Even here in the Planar Battlefield, where divine sense would only stretch for a hundred meters, he was still able to easily chat with Bebe at a distance of many kilometers. It must be understood that when Linley was not even a Saint yet and was trapped within the Radiant Temple of the Radiant Church, he was still able to communicate spiritually with Bebe. At that time, Linley wasn’t even capable of making his spiritual sense leave his body. This was one of the benefits of a spirit bond.

  The Planar Battlefield. Atop the desolate earth.

  Linley and Reisgem on one side, Occluar and his companion on the other. The two stared at each other. They paused slightly, but in the next instant, the two sides attacked without hesitation!

  “Linley, use your innate divine ability against that woman!” Reisgem sent out excitedly, while at the same time, without hesitating at all, Reisgem transformed into a streak of violet light, shooting towards the front.

  “Understood.”

  Linley hurried forward as well, flying towards the enemies at top speed.

  “Hmph. They are looking for death.” Occluar, seeing the two charge towards him, couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. He just stood there, waiting for them to come. He had planned to attack them, only because he was afraid they would flee. But seeing Linley and Reisgem attack, he naturally was more than happy to just wait. Wouldn’t it be excellent to just sit here and wait for them to come and be killed instead?

  Reisgem was in front, Linley was behind.

  When Linley was at a distance of 150 meters from the enemies, Linley’s eyes suddenly flashed with azure-golden light, while at the same time, an enormous coiling Azure Dragon Phantom that was a thousand meters long appeared behind Linley. That Azure Dragon head hovered above Linley, staring at its target…

  The brown-haired woman!

  “Eh?” The white-robed elfin youth, Occluar, was startled. “Azure Dragon clan?” He now realized that Linley was using this technique against his servant.

  However, he still disdainfully stood there. “The innate divine ability of the Azure Dragon clan can at most impact the passage of time. I simply need to make it so that they won’t be able to draw close for a short period of time. They can forget about harming my subordinates.” The white-robed elfin man’s body blurred, and he came attacking towards Reisgem!

  Reisgem cracked his lips into a grin.

  “Down!”

  “BANG!” A violet light exploded forth from Reisgem, creating an enormous sphere of hundreds of meters across. A terrifyingly powerful gravity instantly took effect on the body of the elfin man, Occluar. Occluar suddenly felt as though his
body had become countless times heavier, and he couldn’t help but sink downwards.

  As for Reisgem, he waved his hand out…

  “Swish!”

  A blurry light shot out, striking towards the brown-haired female warrior. The brown-haired female warrior seemed to have just recovered from the field of slow time. Faced with this attack, she wasn’t able to resist at all, and the blurry light shot directly into her body. The brown-haired female warrior’s body trembled slightly, and then collapsed to the ground.

  “Whap!” A white badge floated out from her body.

  “So she was this weak.” Reisgem shook his head disdainfully.

  “Reisgem!” The elfin man, Occluar, stood there staring coldly at Reisgem, his eyes seemingly filled with rage. “You killed my servant…what, do you think you are able to overcome me?”

  “No, no, I don’t think I can.”

  Reisgem chortled and just stood there, facing the elfin man. Reisgem knew how strong Occluar was. If Linley and Bebe weren’t with him, there was no way he would be able to kill Occluar. At their respective levels…they wouldn’t be able to really do anything to each other.

  Occluar was only certain of who Reisgem was after Reisgem spread out his Amethyst Space.

  Otherwise, if he had known in advance, Occluar would’ve retreated long ago.

  “Although I don’t think I can beat you, today, I really want that gold badge of yours, so…sorry.” Reisgem chortled.

  Occluar’s face sank, but then he snickered as well. “Oh, so you want to kill me and get my gold badge? By relying on who? That Azure Dragon punk behind you?” Occluar didn’t care at all about the death of his servant; after all, he had only brought the servant to the Planar Battlefield to attend to him. For battle, he himself was sufficient.

  Occluar looked carefully at Linley, as though wanting to tell how strong Linley was. After all, it seemed as though no one within the Azure Dragon clan had ever been able to threaten his life.

  “No, I don’t have that power.” Linley said with a calm laugh.