Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Linley felt gratitude towards Beirut. It was Beirut who had given him the Sovereign spark; in fact, had given him two! In addition, for thousands of years, he had constantly been taking care of Linley. Linley couldn’t forget any of this. “Lord Beirut, if we didn’t know each other, naturally we would use our comparative power to determine our comparative status. But Lord Beirut, even I myself have no idea as to how I should repay the kindness you have shown me…”

  After his soul mutation, Linley had become as powerful as a Highgod Paragon.

  If they were to determine status through comparing power levels, given that Linley didn’t know that Beirut was a Sovereign, logically speaking, Linley should’ve already started to address him as ‘Beirut’. Linley, however, had not.

  In Linley’s heart…

  Beirut was like a patient, helpful elder relative who had always taken care of him.

  “Haha, since you say that, then I’ll thicken my face for once and ask both you and Bebe to address me as Grandpa Beirut. What say you?” Beirut chortled. When he had discovered Bebe’s existence, Beirut had begun to pay attention to Linley as well. Beirut had always been watching Linley, ever since he was a youth.

  Unconsciously, the care he felt towards Bebe had naturally been partially transferred to Linley as well.

  “Grandpa Beirut.” Linley said hurriedly.

  “Haha…” Hearing this, Beirut was absolutely delighted. Right now, Beirut’s mindset had somewhat changed. Previously, Bebe’s existence made it so that between Linley and Beirut, there existed a relationship that was akin to that of an elder and a junior. This relationship was a bit of a vague one, however, and had never been formalized.

  Although one of the reasons why Beirut had chosen Linley was because Linley’s power had qualitatively risen greatly, it was also because he wanted to borrow Linley’s strength to fight back against the Chief Sovereign of Light.

  But in this instant…

  When Linley also began to address Beirut as ‘Grandpa’, Beirut naturally began to feel differently. He understood…that Linley’s power was going to vastly outstrip his. For him to have helped raise such a supreme expert, and one who was a junior in his own family…naturally, Beirut felt very gratified.

  “Excellent, excellent.” Beirut laughed. “Just now, you were speaking of faith energy…”

  “Right. As soon as I became a Sovereign, I could sense a terrifyingly dense stream of faith energy flood into my sea of consciousness. What is this all about?” Linley was stunned.

  The nearby Bluefire laughed. “Linley, prior to this, weren’t you asking about why all Sovereigns have fused at least five types of profound mysteries?”

  “It’s true that not all Sovereigns are innately gifted. For them to all have fused five profound mysteries or more is indeed inconceivable.” Linley suddenly came to his senses. “Are you saying…that this is because of faith energy?” Linley recollected the purpose of faith energy; it allows experts to be able to gain insights faster and train faster.

  But of course, there was a limit to how much faith energy could help.

  If there wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so few Sovereign Paragons.

  “How could there be so much faith energy? Terrifyingly much…” Linley said hurriedly.

  Beirut explained, “Linley, there are countless material planes. Some worship churches of light, others of darkness, others of earth, others of lightning, others of Destruction…there are all sorts of temples that have been built across the countless planes. The amount of faith energy they draw in is terrifyingly great.”

  “Let me give an example. In the countless planes of the universe, how many living creatures worship light? The number is incalculable. All of that faith energy will build up, and 99% of it will be acquired by the seven Sovereigns of Light! The faith energy they receive every single instant is a terrifying amount.” Beirut laughed. “Precisely because they are infused with so much faith energy, Sovereigns train much faster and gain insights much more easily. This is why every single Sovereign has fused at least five profound mysteries.”

  “So that’s the situation.” Bebe mumbled. “That’s cheating.”

  “If it weren’t for that, why would the Sovereigns have made it so that their churches would be founded throughout the planes of the universe? Why would they have to compile all sorts of types of magic?” Beirut laughed.

  “Compile magic?” Linley was startled.

  “What, is it very odd?” Beirut laughed calmly. “Linley, think about it. What are magical incantations comparable to?”

  In executing a magic spell, one had to use spiritual energy to support the magical incantation needed to use one’s own mageforce to activate the elemental essence of the world and form a magic spell. Some powerful magi could even use their powerful souls to instacast spells without needing to rely on magical incantations! For example, a magus of the eighth rank could use incantations to cast spells of the eighth rank, but if he wanted to instacast, he would only be able to instacast lower rank spells.

  “Magical incantations lower the requirements for casting magical spells! A magus who relies solely on his own power is only able to cast lower level spells. But by relying on magical incantations, he is able to unleash far more powerful magic!” Linley instantly understood. “By relying on magical incantations, one’s attack power will immediately increase greatly. This is much like how the profound mysteries of the Laws can increase one’s attack power!”

  “Right.” Beirut smiled. “Magical incantations are the simplified versions of the profound mysteries of the Laws. Although they aren’t as powerful as the Laws, they are still very useful.”

  “Right, right.” Linley suddenly understood it all. “Haha…for example, the wind-type forbidden level spell, ‘Dimensional Edge’. It’s simply a basic version of the ‘Dimensional Attack’ profound mystery of the Laws of the Wind. And the ninth rank spell of the wind, ‘Void Extermination’. This is a simplified way of applying the ‘Spatial Wind’ of the Laws of the Wind!”

  The nearby Bebe, hearing this, nodded and said in delight, “Right. The ‘Supergravity Field’ of earth magic is just a simple version of ‘Gravitational Space’. And many ordinary earth-type magic spells are based on the Profound Mysteries of the Essence of the Earth.”

  When they did a serious comparison, Linley and Bebe now completely realized that many magic spells were simplified, basic versions of the profound mysteries of the Laws!

  Although magi didn’t know a single thing about the profound mysteries, by rote memory and repetition, they could memorize magic incantations and thus unleash powerful magic! As they understood more about the profound mysteries, they would constantly rise in power, to the point where magi would naturally give up the incantations and embark on the true, great path of analyzing the profound mysteries directly!

  “Magical incantations actually are a simple, superficial way of applying the power of the profound mysteries of the Laws.” Linley sighed in praise. “One needs to have an extremely deep level of insight into the nature of elemental essences and the profound mysteries of the Laws in order to develop magical incantations. If I had to develop new spells, it would probably take me very long as well.”

  The principle behind magical incantations was actually a type of auto-hypnosis; one would adjust one’s spiritual energy to better fuse with the elemental essences. But developing new incantations? That was extremely difficult.

  Beirut laughed. “For the sake of making sure that their supply of faith energy would continue, it only makes sense that the Sovereigns would spend vast amounts of time developing magic spells.”

  “However, the Sovereigns are now virtually all at their limit. And so, their control over the material planes has lessened.” Beirut laughed calmly. “Naturally, some of the material planes have produced a few churches that solely worship a single figure, who receives all of their faith energy for personal use. This is what is known as ‘heresy’, which absolutely must be exterminated. Th
e Sovereigns would even go so far as to send their planar projection clones to go eradicate any traces of heresy. However, the Sovereigns are now paying less attention to heretics. It isn’t like before, where they would annihilate all heretical churches.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  The population of the Yulan Plane was tiny; compared to the Okerlund Plane, which had a population of eight quadrillion, how much faith energy could it provide? The amount of planes the universe held, all added up, came to a terrifying figure.

  “If…for example, the humans of the Okerlund Plane worship the ‘Radiant Goddess’. Where does the faith energy go to?” Linley asked.

  “The Radiant Goddess?” Beirut laughed. “If there isn’t a clear figure of worship, and just a vague ‘Radiant Goddess’, more than 99% of the faith energy will be taken by the seven Sovereigns of Light. Only a very small amount will be acquired by the light-type Deities of the Okerlund Plane.”

  Linley sighed to himself. Sovereigns truly were dominating.

  However, this wasn’t determined by the Sovereigns; it was part of the Edicts of the world.

  “No wonder Sovereigns are so powerful. With so much faith energy, my own training speed will increase explosively as well.” Linley mused to himself. And then, he looked towards the second Sovereign spark in the stone box…the water-type Sovereign spark!

  Drip!

  A drop of fresh blood fell atop the water-type Sovereign spark and was absorbed by the ‘jewel’. A dazzling azure-green aura suddenly sprang up.

  “Rumble…” The world once more became filled with a thick amount of elemental essences, this time of water. The liquefied water-type Sovereign power flooded towards and swirled around Linley, beginning to enter his body. Just like before, Linley’s five souls once more began to increase in power!

  Bluefire and Beirut exchanged glances.

  “Beirut, what level will Linley reach?” Bluefire asked.

  “Uncertain.” Beirut said solemnly. “But I know that upon fusing two Sovereign sparks, the power of one’s Will in the soul will be quite a bit greater than the rest of us normal Sovereigns have. In addition, he himself is a four-way Soul Mutate to begin with, and already possesses the power of Will. Even if we don’t consider other things, the power of his Will should already be comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign’s.”

  The nearby Bebe said hurriedly, “And his fused Sovereign power.”

  “Right. There has never before been a fusion of two different types of Sovereign power. And his power has still more room to grow.” Beirut smiled and nodded. “Fused Sovereign power should be even more powerful than a normal Intermediate Sovereign’s power. Paired with an Overgod artifact…”

  “Paired with an Overgod artifact, he should be comparable to those Chief Sovereigns who do not have an Overgod artifact.” Bluefire said, rather excited.

  “Right. But of course…it’s hard to say if something special would happen for a Fusion Sovereign.” Beirut said.

  And right at this moment, the levitating Linley opened his eyes.

  Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 6, Entrusted

  The eighteenth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods. It had grown calm again. Linley’s eyes were now open.

  Seeing that Linley had fused with the Sovereign sparks, Beirut, Bluefire, and Bebe couldn’t help but have their faces covered by smiles.

  “Linley, how do you feel?” Beirut asked, rather nervous.

  Beirut had never felt so nervous, not once in all these years! But right now…he was truly nervous! What if Linley, after fusing two Sovereign sparks, wasn’t as powerful as he had imagined? This would affect whether or not he, Beirut, would be able to openly depart the Yulan Plane in the future. If he would be able to go roam about the Higher Planes and the Divine Planes!

  “I feel…” A hint of a smile was on Linley’s face. “Not bad at all!”

  “Not bad at all?” Beirut, Bluefire, and Bebe all stared at Linley, puzzlement on their faces. What level of power did Linley’s ‘not bad at all’ represent?

  “Boss, are you as powerful as a Chief Sovereign yet?” Bebe suddenly asked.

  “Uh…?” Linley hesitated slightly.

  “Grnadpa Beirut, do you know how great a difference in power there is between Lesser Sovereigns, Intermediate Sovereigns, and High Sovereigns?” Linley asked. Without a clear understanding as to how powerful each level was, Linley was unable to give an accurate accounting of his own power.

  Beirut hurriedly explained, “Linley, there is a great difference in power between Sovereigns of different levels! For example, a Lesser Sovereign Paragon, compared to an Intermediate Sovereign who had fused five profound mysteries, is slightly weaker. But they will be fairly close! A similar example; an Intermediate Sovereign Paragon will have power that is fairly close to a Chief Sovereign who has fused five profound mysteries. But of course, he would still be slightly weaker. This is without taking weapons and innate divine abilities into account.”

  “I understand now!” Linley nodded slightly.

  Lesser Sovereign Paragons were comparable to Intermediate Sovereigns with five profound mysteries.

  In terms of profound mysteries, Lesser Sovereign Paragons were more than ten times as powerful as Intermediate Sovereigns. But despite that, they still weren’t superior to Intermediate Sovereigns. This represented that the increase in the power of Will was more than tenfold!

  In addition, as far as Will went, Lesser Sovereign Paragons didn’t just possess the power of Sovereign’s Will; they also possessed the portion of Will which the universe had bestowed upon them when they had become Paragons. Despite that, however…the power of their Will was still more than ten times weaker than the Will of an Intermediate Sovereign!

  Then…

  A normal Lesser Sovereign, compared to an Intermediate Sovereign, should only have a hundredth the amount of Will within his Sovereign spark.

  “Logically speaking,” Beirut laughed, “Linley since you already had the power of Will from your four-way soul mutation, and have now fused two Sovereign sparks, the power of your Will should be on a higher level. You should now have a Will which is comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign’s.”

  Bluefire looked at Linley, puzzled. “Linley, you are a Soul Mutate. After fusing the two Sovereign sparks, is the Will within them able to join together as well?”

  “No.” Linley shook his head. “The power of a Sovereign’s Will is almost all within the spark. How can they possibly fuse?”

  “Grandpa Beirut’s guess is accurate.” Linley nodded. “After fusing this water-type Sovereign spark, my five souls gained in Will yet again! According to my calculations, simply in terms of Will alone, I should be comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign.”

  “But you also have fused Sovereign power.” Beirut laughed.

  “Right. The two types of Sovereign power can indeed fuse.”

  Linley sensed that greenish-gray Sovereign power flooding torrentially through his body. He nodded. “This fused Sovereign power, in terms of strength, should be ten times more powerful than ordinary Sovereign power! Now, in terms of Will and Sovereign power, I should be comparable to Intermediate Sovereigns!”

  If it had been someone else, even though he might have two Sovereign clones, that just meant he had an additional Sovereign body, and that each soul would have an additional, separate boost in Will.

  But Linley didn’t just receive an additional boost in Will; more importantly, his Sovereign power could be fused!

  “And you have an Overgod artifact!” Bluefire smiled. “With an Overgod artifact, you should be comparable to the six ordinary Chief Sovereigns!”

  Linley knew which six individuals Bluefire was referring to; of the eleven Chief Sovereigns, only five had Overgod artifacts.

  The eighteenth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods.

  “Whooosh.”

  A gentle wind blew. Beirut, in an excellent mood, waved his sleeve. Instantly, with a ‘creaaaaak’, the many bluestone tile
s began to move, and the platform which held the corpse of the Azure Dragon once more sank down. At the same time, a table and four stone seats appeared on the bluestone floor as well.

  “Everyone, let’s sit down and chat.” Beirut chortled as he led everyone to be seated. At the same time, he withdrew some fine wine and food from his interspatial ring. “Ten thousand years. I’ve never been so happy as I am today. Haha, I never even imagined…that the one who would lead me to escape from my predicament would be that kid from the Fenlai Kingdom. In the blink of an eye, that magus institute student would become someone comparable to a Chief Sovereign.”

  “I’m amazing, right?” Bebe said smugly. “I immediately recognized how great the Boss was and followed him.”

  “Immediately recognized?” Linley said with a smirk. “Back then, I baited you. I lured you in with roasted hare meat and roasted chickens…”

  Bebe was astonished.

  “Haha…” Bluefire, seeing the look on Bebe’s face, couldn’t help but laugh as he drank his wine.

  “Come, Linley. Cheers. In the future, whether or not Bluefire and I will be able to fearlessly depart the Yulan Plane will all be up to you.” Beirut laughed.

  Linley hosted his cup as well. “Don’t worry, Grandpa Beirut. However, it is only proper for me to do these things. It was you who gave me these two Sovereign sparks. In the end, you are the one extricating yourself from your difficulties. I need to thank you.” Linley said with sincerity.

  Beirut laughed, then shook his head. “Haha, you are too modest. I was going to have to find Sovereign candidates anyhow!”

  “And where else could I possibly find a candidate like an expert who is a four-way Soul Mutate? This had nothing to do with me; it was all you. Originally, Bluefire and I continuously paid attention to you. When the Soulstone that was keeping you alive was used up, we originally thought that you wouldn’t be able to survive for much longer. Who would have that thought that you descended from the precipice of danger and managed to return? You survived your journey to the borders of death.” Beirut sighed in praise.