Coiling Dragon

by welyjesch

  Linley nodded. The number of Demigods and Gods the Infernal Realm had was simply countless.

  “Actually, the most powerful of Angels are the Twelve-Winged Angels, and every single one of them is extremely powerful, generally at the Seven Star Fiend level!” Beirut said solemnly.

  “What?!” Linley couldn’t help but cry out in shock.

  Highgods didn’t really matter, but Seven Star Fiends and ordinary Highgods were completely on different levels.

  “How is it that Twelve-Winged Angels are so powerful?” Linley didn’t understand.

  Beirut laughed. “I only learned this when chatting with the Bloodridge Sovereign, Boson. Do you know that Angels are born in the Angelic Resurrection Pools?”

  “I’ve heard of it.” Linley said hurriedly. Just recently, when chatting with Augusta, Linley had heard of the Angelic Resurrection Pools.

  “There are a total of 128 Angelic Resurrection Pools. They are controlled by and divided up amongst the seven Sovereigns of the Divine Light Plane. The Chief Sovereign holds 64 of them by himself. The two Intermediate Sovereigns control 16 each. The four Lesser Sovereigns control 8.” Beirut explained carefully. “Angels are actually a human-shaped weapon. Their souls, after being reborn through the ‘Angelic Resurrection Plane’, will not have any of their past memories. In addition, they will be absolutely loyal to the Sovereigns of Light! They won’t feel any selfishness at all.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  “After the transformation, they will no longer be able to gain any insights into the Laws, nor be able to increase their level of understanding.” Beirut sighed. “If, after the transformation, they are Saint-level Angels, then they will forever be Saint-level Angels.”

  “They are unable to gain any insights, and so naturally, the profound mysteries they use to attack do not come from their own insights.” Beirut said. “Every single Angelic Resurrection Pool is linked to the soul of its Sovereign. The Sovereigns will infuse the Angelic Resurrection Pool with some of their own powerful attacks. Only, there are different levels of power for each Angelic Resurrection Pool. Low level Angelic Resurrection Pools can only contain low-level techniques, and so the Angels they produce are weak Angels.”

  “The high-level Angelic Resurrection Pools, however, contain attacks that generally involve the fusion of four or five profound mysteries, because that is the sort of attack which Sovereigns themselves use!” Beirut explained, “Thus, the Angels birthed from the high level Angelic Resurrection Pools, the Twelve-Winged Angels, generally will have supreme attacks that involve the fusion of four or even five profound mysteries!”

  Linley now understood.

  No wonder every single Twelve-Winged Angel was so powerful! It was because they didn’t have to gain any insights; they were born understanding those powerful attacks.

  “The Twelve-Winged Angels are very powerful. In the past, when I publicized the existence of the Necropolis of the Gods, I attracted quite a few people, amongst which included Seven Star Fiends of the Infernal Realm and even Twelve-Winged Angels. I imagine that the Twelve-Winged Angels also wanted to seize a Sovereign artifact. After all, the number of Sovereign artifacts which the Sovereign can bestow is limited.”

  Beirut sighed, “In that battle, the power which the Twelve-Winged Angels display was absolutely not inferior to that of the Seven Star Fiends!”

  “The Angelic Resurrection Pool. How terrifying. It is actually able to directly produce Twelve-Winged Angels that are no weaker than Seven Star Fiends.” Linley sighed.

  “It isn’t that simple. The conditions necessary for a soul to be able to support the energy of a Twelve-Winged Angel are extremely stringent! The creation of every single Twelve-Winged Angel is fairly difficult, and thus if a material plane is able to offer a soul that is capable of becoming a Twelve-Winged Angel, the offering church will naturally receive an enormous reward.”

  Beirut sighed as he spoke. “The Radiant Church was so happy as to increase the King of Fenlai’s power! I imagine…your mother’s soul must have been truly pure. The type of Angel she was reborn as should be the most powerful type, a Twelve-Winged Angel!”

  Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 24, Nine Rounds

  “Twelve-Winged Angel?” Linley let out a slightly relieved sigh.

  The lower the level an Angel was, the faster they would die.

  “It is very hard to birth a Twelve-Winged Angel. The Twelve-Winged Angels which exist have been slowly accumulated over the course of countless years. The Sovereigns of Light won’t casually dispatch Twelve-Winged Angels out to take on missions. Sometimes, a million years will pass without a single Twelve-Winged Angel being activated. Your mother became a Twelve-Winged Angel less than ten thousand years ago. The chances of her death are virtually negligible.” Beirut laughed.

  Only now did Linley completely relax.

  “Haha, Grandpa Beirut, your logical reasoning has calmed me down quite a bit.” Linley now felt more than enough self-confidence in his ability to rescue his mother.

  “Right. Grandpa Beirut.” Linley waved his hand, and an earth-type Sovereign spark, glowing with an earthen yellow light, appeared. “This is an unexpected reward that I acquired.”

  “A Sovereign spark?” Beirut was startled.

  Linley laughed and nodded. “Augusta and I went together to the Divine Light Plane. Who would have imagined that the Chief Sovereign of Lightning, Hurley, followed us in as well. Even the other five Chief Sovereigns of the Laws followed us from far away. When I attacked Augusta, Hurley suddenly sneak-attacked me, wanting to kill me and seize my Overgod artifact. I immediately hit him with a back-handed sword attack!”

  Beirut instantly started to laugh. “So, you acquired his Sovereign spark?”

  “Right. Hurley’s lightning-type Chief Sovereign clone fled quite quickly. I just wanted to teach him a small lesson anyhow, and so I destroyed his earth-type Sovereign clone.”

  Linley frowned. “Now, the question is, who should I give this earth-type Sovereign spark to? Grandpa Beirut, what do you think?”

  “The earth-type Sovereign spark…”

  Beirut frowned. “Bluefire can use it, but if we give it to him, his power will only rise slightly, to the Intermediate Sovereign level or so. It won’t change the overall strategic balance of power much. Ideally, we should find a Highgod. However, a Highgod who trains in the Laws of the Earth…it’s going to be quite hard to find such a person within your Baruch clan for now.”

  Linley laughed in resignation.

  The Baruch clan had quite a few Highgods, but they fused with divine sparks. A Highgod who had relied solely on himself to train to that level, and in the Laws of the Earth? There really wasn’t a single one yet.

  To fuse a Sovereign spark, there was just a single precondition. One had to trained independently to the Highgod level.

  “What’s the rush?” Beirut laughed. “Just keep it for now. When the time comes, if there is a suitable candidate, you can hand it over then.”

  “Haha. Alright. I’ll just use this Sovereign spark to serve as a precious ancestral heirloom for the Baruch clan.” Linley laughed loudly. “Grandpa Beirut, make the notifications. Have the people of Dragonblood Castle who are willing to come to the Infernal Realm all come over.” Linley had now completely guaranteed the safety of his family and friends in the Infernal Realm.

  The Chief Sovereigns who were more powerful than Linley had no grudges against him.

  Even if they did, they wouldn’t be so shameless as the Chief Sovereign of Light, who had threatened him with the annihilation of his clan.

  “That might be for the best.” Beirut laughed and nodded. “During these past five centuries, they’ve been quite bored in the Yulan Plane. After all, in terms of experts, the Infernal Realm has far more, and there are also many more places to go adventuring in the Infernal Realm.”

  Linley was in no hurry to establish his divine plane of wind. He stayed in the Infernal Realm, bringing over his family and friends. Du
ring this period of time, Linley also focused on his training, and on merging and fusing the separate Laws. Occasionally, he would spend some time with his family and friends.

  The year after Linley and Augusta’s battle was also the year when Linley’s reputation expanded the most extravagantly.

  Linley had heavily injured the Chief Sovereign of Light, and with a single sword blow, killed the earth-type Sovereign clone of the Chief Sovereign of Lightning, Hurley, terrifying Hurley into instant, panicked flight.

  This battle prowess was naturally spread to everyone else by the five other Chief Sovereigns of the Laws.

  This information was simply too astonishing. Soon, virtually all the Sovereigns became aware of it.

  Linley’s status instantly eclipsed that of the other Seven Elemental Chief Sovereigns, and was only second to the four supreme experts, Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.

  And so, in the span of a single short year, more than ten Sovereigns had come to pay their respects to Linley. When Sovereigns met, they too would eat some fruit, drink some wine, and casually banter.

  Roughly a year after the battle with Augusta.

  The Infernal Realm. Bloodridge Province. Indigo Prefecture. The Skyrite Mountains. Linley’s Sovereign estate.

  Within this quiet, secluded estate, soft grass covered the ground. Linley was dressed in a long, loose robe. He sat in the meditative position as the wind blew past him, brushing against the strands of his hair.

  A figure slowly took form in front of Linley, as though it had teleported there.

  Linley opened his eyes. He saw that this person was a man dressed in long, blood-red robes. It was the Bloodridge Sovereign, Boson. He laughed, “Boson, why have you come to my place?” Not long ago, Boson had met with Linley, and at that time, Linley had wanted to address him as ‘Mr. Boson’, but no matter what he said, the Bloodridge Sovereign refused to be addressed like that.

  He even wanted to address Linley as ‘Lord’. After all, Linley’s power, even amongst the Chief Sovereigns, was extremely great.

  In the end, both took a step back. They viewed each other as friends, and so addressed each other by name.

  “Must I have a reason for coming?” The Bloodridge Sovereign smiled as he sat down next to him. “Actually, today, I really did have an important reason for coming.”

  “Speak.” Linley listened attentively.

  The Bloodridge Sovereign laughed. “You still have no Emissaries, right?”

  “Uh…why are you thinking about this?” Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “How is it your business, Boson, if I choose to accept Emissarise or not?”

  “That’s not it.” The Bloodridge Sovereign shook his head. “To tell you the truth, every trillion years, there is a session of the Planar Wars, and each of the Planar Wars have a total of five rounds! Three rounds have already passed, and roughly six hundred years in the future, the fourth Planar War is going to begin.”

  “Which two planes are doing battle?” Linley asked, curious.

  “Our Infernal Realm and the Celestial Realm.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said solemnly. “Linley, the upcoming fourth round of the Planar Wars is extremely important. Because…in the nine previous competitions, the Celestial Realm won nine rounds in a row.”

  “What?” Linley was startled.

  Linley understood that after becoming a Sovereign, there were three ways for gaining an additional portion of Will. The first was to fuse with another Sovereign spark. The second was to become a Paragon. The third was for one’s side, in the Planar Wars, to win ten times in a row.

  But of course, another method was to become a Soul Mutate like Linley. Only, this sort of unique situation wasn’t applicable to all Sovereigns.

  “If I remember correctly, long, long ago, the Celestial Realm won ten rounds in a row already.” Linley said with a frown.

  “Exactly.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said hurriedly. “The seven Sovereigns of Fate have already received a reward, and so the other Sovereigns don’t want them to see them receive a reward again! In particular, we don’t want to see the Chief Sovereign of Fate increase in strength yet again. He’s already strong enough.”

  Linley nodded slightly.

  “Ever since the creation of the universe, every time one side wins nine times in a row, all of the other planes will join together to prevent them from winning a tenth time.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said. “Generally speaking, when all the other planes join forces, the chances for success will be extremely high. Over the course of countless years, however, there was one failure. That time, the Celestial Realm won, and thus the seven Sovereigns of Fate received the reward.”

  The Bloodridge Sovereign said solemnly, “This time, no matter what, we can’t let them win again. This is the order that came from the Chief Sovereign of Destruction himself.”

  Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

  Most likely, as far as the Chief Sovereign of Destruction was concerned, his only real opponent was the Chief Sovereign of Fate.

  “What does not wanting him to win, have to do with finding Emissaries?” Linley laughed.

  “If we don’t want him to win, then our side needs to find enough experts.” The Bloodridge Sovereign shook his head. “But many experts already know how extremely savage this particular Planar War will be. It will be absolutely berserk! Thus, many commander-level experts are not willing to participate in it.”

  Linley laughed and nodded.

  All of the planes would be going all out, and the Celestial Realm would be going all out as well. One could completely imagine how savage this battle would be. Unless one was completely confident in one’s powers or unless one was tired of life, one probably wouldn’t participate.

  “How is it that the commanders know how important this battle is?” Linley said, puzzled.

  The reward for winning ten battles should be a secret amongst Sovereigns.

  “Based on past precedence.” The Bloodridge Sovereign let out an awkward laugh. “In this sort of berserk battle, both sides will go all out. They will come up with any and all measures that can allow their side to grow more powerful, in a manner which does not violate the Pact of Sovereigns. Thus! Both sides will bestow every single participant in this Planar War with Sovereign’s Might! Every single person will receive two drops!”

  Linley was stupefied.

  Mad! They had all gone mad!

  If every single person who entered the Planar Battlefield was bestowed with two drops of Sovereign’s Might, then even a commander-level expert, upon suffering an attack from ten Highgods, would probably perish.

  “Although these commanders don’t know about the secret behind the ten consecutive battles, they do know that all of the Highgods who are participating will be bestowed Sovereign’s Might. How many commanders would dare participate?” The Bloodridge Sovereign laughed bitterly. “Originally, we didn’t want to hand out that much Sovereign’s Might either. But if we don’t and the other side does…doesn’t that mean that we will lose for sure? There’s nothing that we can do!”

  Linley understood the predicament they were in.

  The Sovereigns all knew that giving each participant two drops of Sovereign’s Might was simply too insane, but they had no choice.

  “In the battles in the Stellar Corridors, a group of commander-level experts, especially armed with Sovereign artifacts, will be extremely effective.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said solemnly. “Thus, what the Chief Sovereign of Destruction desires is for you to acquire six Emissaries. According to the rules, a Lesser Sovereign can take on two Emissaries, an Intermediate Sovereign can take on four, and a Chief Sovereign can take on eight. Since you have three Lesser Sovereign clones, you can take on six.”

  Linley nodded to acknowledge that he understood.

  “But I haven’t even made any Sovereign artifacts yet.” Linley said helplessly.

  “Sovereign artifacts, to us, are something that we can create every ten thousand years or so. They aren’t that
important.” The Bloodridge Sovereign laughed. “Almost all of the Sovereigns have lived for hundreds of millions of years. Only, the Pact of Sovereigns forbids Sovereigns from giving their Emissaries more than a single artifact, so as to maintain balance amongst the Deities.”

  “Linley, if you don’t have any Sovereign artifacts, I can give ten or so to you as a gift.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said disdainfully.

  In the Infernal Realm, there were many Deities who made their living by forging divine artifacts.

  It was the same principle. To Sovereigns, forging Sovereign artifacts was something that only required a bit of time and effort.

  “Fine. Since you’ve said all these things, fine.” Linley laughed, then nodded. But then Linley said, puzzled, “Boson, I truly don’t understand. Given that all of these Sovereigns are joining forces, why are we worried about the Celestial Realm winning? How can they possibly win?”

  The Bloodridge Sovereign nodded. “The Celestial Realm has always been the most powerful of the Four Higher Realms. In addition, the Edicts of Fate have strange, bizarre attacks. Thus, during the Planar Wars, the Celestial Realm often gains victory. Normally, we don’t care that much, but once there are nine victories in a row, then we cannot be careless.”

  “For the sake of this tenth battle, based on what we know, they have already prepared an extremely powerful tactic.” The Bloodridge Sovereign laughed bitterly. “In addition, the chances of success for this tactic are extremely high.”

  “What sort of tactic?” Linley said, puzzled.

  “The Chief Sovereign of Fate will go ask the Chief Sovereign of Light, Augusta, for assistance. He will borrow large numbers of Twelve-Winged Angels.” The Bloodridge Sovereign said solemnly. “Linley, you should know that in the battle above the Stellar River, the main reason one side loses is due to a lack of morale; one side is routed. Anyone with a consciousness is susceptible to fear, can be routed.”