Chapter 24: Ten Thousand Swords United, Life Source Pearl!
The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ hovered in midair like a sovereign, her nearly transparent green countless tendrils swirling around her seductive body.
Below her—
Countless roots and vines shot up into the sky, writhing wildly, while low growls echoed from beneath the desert. The Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ numerous offspring monsters were gathering around the black pyramid, completely covering it.
Linley glanced at Rosalie and Desri beside him. These two Saint-level Archmages were chanting their magic incantations, already at the final stage.
Rosalie’s emerald hair suddenly floated upward as if lifted, and violent water elements spread outward from her, centering on her. Countless frost fell from the sky, and the temperature plummeted to an extreme low in an instant. Even the countless wildly writhing vines and roots below were frozen into frost.
Water-element Forbidden Spell—Absolute Zero.
At the same moment, a sharp, invisible ripple emanated from Desri’s body, sweeping directly toward the Empress ‘Lashabelle’ in midair. The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ merely trembled slightly but was otherwise unaffected.
“Crack, bang.”
Many roots and vines shattered directly from the freezing.
A layer of frost also covered the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ body.
“Is this your attack?” The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ laughed arrogantly. “When it comes to soul and spiritual power, how could you compare to me? As for this water-element magic… haha, utterly ridiculous. I, ‘Lashabelle,’ cultivate the two elemental laws of water and wind.”
“So strong!” Linley’s group sighed inwardly.
Such plant lifeforms generally had immense bodies, and their souls were usually incredibly powerful. The Empress’s actual size was also terrifying, though it could naturally shrink with cultivation. Meanwhile, her soul grew stronger with each step of cultivation.
Both were at the Saint-level peak.
Yet human Saint-level Archmages were far inferior to such terrifying plant life.
The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ hadn’t even finished speaking.
“Sss—”
Eighteen beams of black light shot from the eyes of the three Six-Eyed Golden Lions, instantly enveloping the entire Empress ‘Lashabelle.’ The surface of her massive body and roots seemed covered in a layer of black skin.
The Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ eyes bulged wide, and her beautiful face twisted in an instant.
She herself was completely immobilized!
“Whoosh!” Perfectly coordinated, as the eighteen beams shot out, Linley had already dashed toward the Empress at top speed.
“Roar~”
“Kill him!”
…
Countless offspring monsters below the desert let out deafening roars, all hoping their Empress would destroy these humans. But in that moment, none of them noticed… their Empress was already unable to move.
Holding the Violet Blood Soft Sword in one hand and the Black Dusk Heavy Sword in the other.
In his Dragonblood Warrior form, Linley’s dark golden eyes locked onto the distant Empress ‘Lashabelle.’ He charged toward Lashabelle at maximum speed. Linley had already entered the area covered by the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ countless roots and vines.
“Hmph.” The corner of Linley’s mouth curled up slightly.
The wind howled, and Linley crossed several hundred meters in an instant, now less than a hundred meters from Lashabelle. A hundred meters was but a blink of an eye for Linley. But in a battle of experts, the fight was decided in an instant.
“Roar~~~” A furious roar erupted from the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ mouth.
Countless roots, along with those wrapped around her body, surged directly toward Linley. The Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ eyes held only endless rage, vowing to kill all these humans, starting with the one before her.
The Empress had broken free from the ‘immobilization.’
“Not good.” Desri, Rosalie, and the others’ expressions changed drastically.
Bebe’s small, jet-black eyes flashed with a hint of red light, and a pitch-black aura rose from his body. Bebe transformed into a black streak of light, charging forward recklessly despite the danger: “Boss!” Bebe was extremely worried.
A mass of roots coiled and surged toward him.
Linley, however, remained calm in his heart. He had already planned for this scenario.
The ‘Violet Blood Soft Sword’ in his hand instantly transformed into countless eerie purple lights. Wherever they passed, space became hazy and blurred with overlapping shadows, and each purple light moved like a serpent along strange trajectories, stabbing forward with arcane curves.
Space Stasis!
The countless roots rushing forward seemed to sink into a quagmire, their speed abruptly slowing.
Then, the countless purple sword shadows converged into a single point—ten thousand swords united—forming a blurry, heart-shaking purple light. This purple light shot forward like a meteor, unstoppable.
“Bang!” Where the purple sword light struck, the tough, semi-transparent roots instantly shattered and burst apart. Countless broken roots flew in all directions.
Wind Essence—Ten Thousand Swords United!
This was Linley’s strongest sword in terms of Wind Essence!
Linley instantly shot out from the space breached by ‘Ten Thousand Swords United.’ The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ was utterly stunned at this sight: “How is this possible?” Her roots were nothing like those of her offspring monsters.
So many roots had closed in, yet this human had broken through in an instant.
“Die.” Breaking through the root cage, Linley appeared directly above the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ head. Holding the Black Dusk Heavy Sword, he slashed down.
“No.” Lashabelle immediately dove downward at extreme speed.
But body movement could never match the speed of a weapon. The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ also tried to control her roots to block, but… it was too late.
“Bang!” Linley’s Black Dusk Heavy Sword struck ‘Lashabelle’s’ head.
The heavy sword lightly touched ‘Lashabelle’s’ head, and her massive body shuddered violently. Then, green liquid began to ooze from her mouth and eyes. The once wildly writhing roots hung limply.
But Linley’s other hand didn’t rest. He once again executed ‘Ten Thousand Swords United.’
Countless eerie purple sword shadows swirled along strange trajectories, freezing space once more. The countless purple sword shadows converged into a single point, forming a blurry purple sword light. This sword light stabbed straight down from the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ head.
“Bang!”
From the head downward, the Empress’s body completely collapsed into green fragments. As her body disintegrated, Linley realized that the ‘Earth Essence’ had already turned her insides into mush. But when her body fully crumbled, Linley was surprised to find—
Inside the Empress’s body was a very small, transparent orb emitting dazzling green light.
Linley grabbed it with a flick of his hand, securing the transparent orb. As for the Empress ‘Lashabelle’s’ half-destroyed corpse and countless roots, they fell limply from midair, dropping into the mass of vines below.
The ‘Green Sea’ of wildly writhing vines and roots below suddenly stopped.
These plant life offspring couldn’t believe it. Their mighty ‘Empress’ had been killed by that dragon-like warrior above.
The invincible Empress was dead!
“Listen up, all of you.” Linley shouted coldly downward. “Get far away from here, every last one of you. Otherwise… I’ll kill you all, just like I killed your Empress.” Linley’s gaze swept coldly over the area below.
“Rustle~~”
Countless vines and roots rapidly retracted deep into the desert. The once vast ‘Green Sea’ turned back into sand. The terrified offspring plant life fled at top speed. Even their Empress, a thousand times stronger than them, was dead.
How could they fight these people?
The black pyramid, once covered in vines and roots, now revealed its true form.
“Boss, you scared me to death.” Bebe was now beside Linley. The black light on Bebe’s body had already merged back inside.
Linley couldn’t help but hug Bebe.
Though Bebe’s nature wasn’t fully mature—sometimes mischievous, sometimes showing a magical beast’s bloodlust—he was willing to give his life for Linley. The two had grown up together, relying on each other. Their bond was so deep… their souls were connected, and they could clearly feel each other.
“I’m fine. Without some certainty, would your boss have done that?” Linley said teasingly.
By then, Desri and the others had flown over. After the recent turn of events, they all wore relieved smiles.
“Linley, when you demonstrated that sword move in front of us before, I wasn’t too confident,” Fane said with a laugh. “But after seeing that scene, I now know the power of that sword. No matter how strong the defense, it can’t withstand that sword of yours.”
Back then, Linley had demonstrated it against the air, so how could Fane and the others truly feel its power?
“Everyone, let’s search carefully. See if there’s a divine artifact on this seventh level,” Desri said to the group. “We agreed earlier—whoever kills the Empress gets the divine artifact. Linley risked his life to do this… he deserves the divine artifact. Let’s all search thoroughly.”
Linley quickly said, “No need for such trouble…”
“Just stay here. We’ll search for you,” one of the Six-Eyed Golden Lions said. The three brothers had underestimated the Empress’s power and strength. Their combined immobilization had only lasted a moment before the Empress broke free.
Linley had contributed the most to killing the Empress. Everyone voluntarily helped search, even Oliver took the initiative to fly downward. The many experts searched carefully.
Linley himself flew toward the black pyramid’s passage steps.
On the sixth level, the divine artifact had been placed beside the passage steps. But this time was different.
“Nothing?” Linley shook his head. He had thoroughly searched around the steps but found nothing.
The experts searched the area within a thousand miles for an hour. Finally, they all returned to the black pyramid.
“Did any of you find anything?” Desri asked.
Everyone else shook their heads.
Desri frowned and said, “Strange. On the sixth level, including the Flame Lord’s axe, we got three divine artifacts. The Empress ‘Lashabelle’ on this seventh level is even stronger than the Flame Lord. Yet we haven’t found a single divine artifact.”
Linley was also puzzled.
“It shouldn’t be that there are none,” Fane said, also confused. “Where could the divine artifact be?”
“Oh,” Rosalie’s eyes lit up. “On the sixth level, the Flame Lord himself held a giant axe. Did Lashabelle herself have any divine artifact? Linley, did you see anything?”
“Herself?” Linley was startled.
Then he remembered the orb he had already stored in his space ring. He immediately took it out: “Oh, when I killed the Empress and her body collapsed, I noticed an unusual orb inside her body, so I took it. Look, what is this thing?”
Linley didn’t think this orb was a divine artifact.
In his view… it was probably something like a magical beast’s core, the essence of the Empress’s body.
“Life Source Pearl.” The three Six-Eyed Golden Lions exclaimed almost simultaneously upon seeing the orb in Linley’s hand.
Linley, Desri, and the others looked at the three Six-Eyed Golden Lions in confusion. One of them immediately explained: “The Life Source Pearl is a type of spiritual treasure we saw back when we were with our father. Now we understand… why the Empress ‘Lashabelle’ could instantly repair her broken roots.”
“Once the Life Source Pearl is fused into the body, it provides an endless supply of life force. Even if the body is cut into seven or eight pieces, it can return to normal within a second or two. In other words… as long as the soul isn’t destroyed, the user is immortal.” The Six-Eyed Golden Lion said excitedly. “For Saint-level experts, this Life Source Pearl is more precious than any divine artifact!”