Chapter 32: The Decision
Although Perry was already over two hundred years old, as a Level Eight warrior, his body was still robust. But after Sethler's five fingers pierced into his skull, Perry's entire face turned ashen, and his body twitched and trembled weakly, like an old man at death's door.
Linley watched this scene closely.
"Soul search." Linley was seeing this strange technique for the first time. Necromancy, as one of the three most formidable types of magic, was truly awe-inspiring.
After about two minutes, Sethler's originally emerald-green eyes returned to their normal color.
Sethler glanced at Perry, whose face was deathly pale, let out a sinister chuckle, and withdrew his right hand. The two golden-furred, green-eyed zombies beside him also released Perry. With his skull pierced and his soul shattered, Perry was dead beyond any doubt, collapsing like a pile of mud onto the ground, motionless.
"How was it?" Sethler looked at Linley smugly.
For an expert of Sethler's level, the admiration and astonishment of ordinary people could no longer satisfy his vanity. But since meeting Linley, he hadn't truly earned Linley's respect. Having shown off this skill, Sethler was eager to see a look of amazement in Linley's eyes.
The admiration of a true expert would satisfy his vanity.
"Impressive," Linley admitted honestly.
The soul was a profoundly mysterious thing. As the most essential essence of a person, humans knew very little about it. To extract someone's memories from their soul—Linley couldn't even imagine how that was possible.
"Hehe." Sethler chuckled smugly, and then the two golden-furred, green-eyed zombies beside him vanished into thin air, returning to their homeland, the Necropolis.
"Let's go," Linley urged.
In an instant, Count Perry's estate fell back into a stifling silence. The vast majority of people were completely unconscious, while the corpses of the few strong warriors lay scattered messily on the ground.
Inside the private courtyard of the inn.
The living room door was closed. Rebecca and Nina obediently lit candles, while Linley and Sethler began to talk.
"What did you find in Perry's memories?" Linley asked calmly, pressing for answers.
Sethler looked at Linley with a smile and said, "Linley, I knew too little about you before. I never expected... I never expected you to be so remarkable."
"What's so special about Big Brother Lei?" Rebecca, standing nearby, widened her big, adorable eyes and asked curiously.
Sethler raised his white eyebrows with a grin. "Rebecca, Nina, your Big Brother Linley is quite famous in the Holy Alliance. In the world of stone carving, he's a master on par with Proulx. Do you know? When he was sixteen, he carved a stone sculpture—do you know how much it was worth?" Sethler asked with a smile.
"Stone carving?" Rebecca and Nina exchanged glances.
In their eyes, stone carving was incredibly difficult. Just achieving a lifelike appearance was hard enough, let alone capturing any essence or spirit.
"How many gold coins?" Rebecca and Nina asked curiously.
"Twelve million gold coins!" Sethler announced the number.
All this information came from Count Perry's mind. Perry had received the Church's kill order for Linley, so the details about Linley were described very clearly.
"Twelve million gold coins for just one stone carving?" Rebecca and Nina's mouths dropped open.
"Not just the stone carving. Your Big Brother Linley's magical talent was second-best in history back then, and now he's probably the greatest the Yulan Continent has ever seen. As for his warrior talent, you already know about that," Sethler said, genuinely admiring Linley.
A genius.
No one could doubt it—Linley's achievements spoke for themselves.
Rebecca and Nina immediately looked at Linley, their eyes filled with undisguised surprise and admiration.
"Alright, Sethler," Linley said with a shake of his head and a smile. "Enough about the past. Tell me what you found in Perry's memories."
Sethler also put away his smile.
"According to the information from Perry's memories, the Radiant Church's influence in the O'Brien Empire is relatively small and completely underground. They don't dare offend the 'War God,' so the Church's hidden experts in the O'Brien Empire are extremely few."
Linley nodded slightly.
"From Perry's memories, I learned the identities of all the leaders of the Church's hidden network in the entire Northwest Province. We can completely destroy this network," Sethler said with a sinister grin.
Building was hard; destroying was easy.
It was very difficult to station a group of people in one place without arousing suspicion.
But to destroy them? Just kill them directly.
"What about the other provinces?" Linley pressed.
In Linley's view, destroying the network in just one province wasn't enough. Wiping out all the Church's bases in the O'Brien Empire would be truly satisfying.
"If we kill the overall leaders and key figures in all seven provinces, then there will be no one in charge. And since the Church's network operates on single-line communication, once the leaders and overall leaders are dead, the entire network will likely be paralyzed."
The greater the blow to the Radiant Church, the more Linley would relish it.
Sethler shook his head and said, "Just as the leaders of each city only contacted Perry, Perry only contacted the overall leader of the O'Brien Empire or the Church's headquarters directly."
"The overall leader of the O'Brien Empire?" Linley's eyes lit up.
So there was an even higher-ranking leader in the O'Brien Empire. If they captured that overall leader and used 'Soul Search,' they might get a lot more information.
"Unfortunately, Perry didn't know that person's identity either," Sethler said with a shake of his head. "Perry only knew to send messages to a specific location."
Linley nodded.
Sethler suddenly grinned. "But I did get one very interesting piece of information from Perry's memories."
"Tell me," Linley said, looking at Sethler.
"The overall leader of the O'Brien Empire gave Perry an order: in about a month, an escort squad would enter the Northwest Province. The overall leader told Perry to arrange for people to receive them carefully along the way and ensure secrecy." Sethler smirked. "According to the order, this escort squad was extremely important—no less important than the one that escorted me."
"Oh?" Linley's eyes brightened.
If the escort squad was that important, the person being escorted must be someone special.
"Do you know their first stop in the Northwest Province?" Linley pressed.
"It's Deka City. According to the planned route, they won't pass through the provincial capital," Sethler said.
Linley nodded. That made sense. The provincial capital, Bazil, had a Saint-level expert, 'McKenzie.' Of course, the route would avoid that place.
"Deka City is about eight hundred miles from here," Sethler said, familiar with the O'Brien Empire's geography.
Linley said indifferently, "Eight hundred miles? If we rush at full speed, one day is enough."
If the Blackstriped Cloud Leopard 'Blackie' ran at top speed, it wouldn't even take half a day. But long-distance running couldn't always maintain peak speed.
Still, at a normal running pace, leaving in the morning would get them there before evening.
"We'll set out for Deka City in half a month," Linley said.
Sethler nodded as well.
*******
Time passed. Linley, Sethler, and the sisters Rebecca and Nina stayed in the inn's private courtyard. Sethler was going to perform the 'Necromantic Inheritance' for Rebecca and Nina, while Linley didn't waste a moment, continuing his training.
Linley didn't witness the Necromantic Inheritance process.
Rebecca and Nina went into a room with Sethler to begin the 'Necromantic Inheritance.' After just a short while, Sethler came out and told Linley not to disturb the sisters.
For three full days and nights, Rebecca and Nina didn't emerge from the room until they finally stepped out, full of energy and confidence.
In those three days, they had fully integrated the Necromantic Inheritance. According to Sethler, both sisters had excellent talent.
Meanwhile, Linley was training in the fourth level of the Heavy Sword technique, 'Earth's Mystery.'
...
In a desolate wilderness, a robed figure skimmed over the endless weeds, flying swiftly eastward as if riding the wind.
His frame was lean but sturdy, his silver hair short and bristly like steel needles.
A black robe wrapped around his entire body, and his gaze was sharp as a blade, fixed straight ahead as he flew low and fast.
"Five Level Eight bodies." Shitler remembered Heiting's repeated instructions.
The five brothers being escorted this time could not have any accidents, no matter what. Five Level Eight bodies—once the angels descended, they would become five peak Saint-level warriors.
"It's been a long time since I killed a Saint-level expert." A cold, sinister smile curled at the corner of Shitler's mouth.
Heiting had authorized him: if any Saint-level expert got in the way, he could kill them. The Radiant Church would handle the consequences.
...
On the morning of the tenth day after Count Perry's death.
Linley sat cross-legged on the ground, motionless. The morning mist hung in the air. These past days had been quiet for Linley. Although Perry's death had prompted an investigation by the city guard, it had nothing to do with them.
Linley suddenly stood up, gripping his Blackdusk Heavy Sword, and thrust it forward into the air. A sharp sound like tearing cloth rang out—
About fifty meters ahead, a wall trembled, and dust fell.
"Pfft~" A fist-sized area on the wall's surface instantly turned to powder, trickling down like fine sand, leaving a fist-sized hole.
No battle qi shot out. Just an empty thrust in the air had created a hole in the wall fifty meters away.
"Earth's Mystery: Triple Wave."
Linley murmured to himself, "The simplest and most basic 'Triple Wave' of Earth's Mystery—I've finally mastered it completely." Ever since entering Er City, Linley had been pondering this technique.
Now, he had finally grasped the most fundamental attack of the fourth level, 'Earth's Mystery': the 'Triple Wave.'
Battle qi and power, when converted into vibrational waves during an attack, the higher the number of waves, the higher the conversion efficiency. The efficiency of the Triple Wave was low, but its power was already considerable.
After all, it was a completely different method of attack from ordinary battle qi or raw strength.
"Linley." Sethler had been standing at the door and saw this scene. "What kind of attack was that?" Sethler was quite surprised.
He had seen Saint-level experts attack before.
Usually, they would slash out with dense battle qi to strike from a distance. But Linley's attack—no visible battle qi, no other energy—silently created a fist-sized hole in the wall. It was too eerie.
"You wouldn't understand even if I told you," Linley said with a faint smile.
He had grasped the most basic Triple Wave, but Linley knew that the further he went, the harder it would get, and the more time it would take.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"...
Suddenly, there was a knock at the courtyard gate. Linley walked over and opened it.
A waiter from the inn said respectfully, "Sir, this gentleman wishes to see you." Beside the waiter stood a friendly-looking middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man glanced at the waiter, who immediately and obediently withdrew.
The middle-aged man smiled at Linley. "Lord Linley, hello."
Linley's expression changed slightly. Very few people knew his identity.
"Lord Linley, no need to be tense. My master wishes to meet with you," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
"Who is your master?" Linley frowned.
"Lord Linley will understand after reading this letter." The middle-aged man took a letter from his bosom and handed it to Linley.
(End of Chapter One!)