Chapter 22: Linley Becomes a God
Kill a deity-level expert to save Yale?
Hearing Sesler say this, Linley felt a trace of pressure.
"Yale is now…" Thinking of how Yale's soul had been implanted with a 'soul seed' and was completely under the command of that mysterious deity-level expert, Linley's heart was filled with unwillingness and anger. "No matter who that deity-level expert is, I will definitely kill him!"
To bring Yale back, to the Yale of the past.
To let Yale regain his true self, he had to do it!
"Lord Linley? May I ask a question." Sesler hesitated for a moment before inquiring. "Lord Linley, you and Lord Fain killed two silver-robed men together. I wonder what you obtained from their corpses, such as space rings…"
"There were space rings." Linley nodded and looked at Sesler. "But I gave them to Wharton. Wharton can give them to whoever he wants. What's the matter?"
A space ring might be very precious to the king of a kingdom.
But for ordinary Saint-level experts, they were relatively common. For someone as strong as Linley, finding a space ring was very easy. He hadn't cared much about the space rings obtained from the silver-robed men's corpses. There were two silver-robed men, so there were two space rings. Linley and Fain each took one.
"Lord Linley, you'd better check first to see what's inside that space ring." Sesler said solemnly.
"Alright."
Linley heeded Sesler's advice and immediately sent someone to invite Wharton over.
Wharton soon arrived at the back garden. On the way, he was still a bit worried: "Brother values brotherhood so much, but Yale… Brother must be feeling terrible right now." Wharton was worried for Linley, but when he saw Linley, he noticed something.
Linley didn't look particularly sad at the moment. Instead, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his gaze was firm, as if he was troubled by something.
"Brother, you called for me?" Wharton immediately asked.
"Didn't I give you a space ring? Have you given it to anyone else to use?" Linley asked urgently.
Wharton smiled and said, "Not yet. I was planning to give it to Nina in a few days. Nina and I have been married for so long, and I haven't given her any precious gifts."
"Quick, have Nina come here. Have her make a blood contract with it right now and see what's inside the space ring." Linley said quickly.
Wharton was surprised at how anxious his big brother was.
Soon, Nina arrived. Knowing what Linley and the others wanted, she straightforwardly made a blood contract with the space ring and then emptied all its contents in one go.
Among the items were some clothes, various ores, and other things. The most conspicuous item was… a crystal ball.
"That's it." Sesler's eyes lit up when he saw the crystal ball.
Linley, Wharton, and Nina were all puzzled. To them, the crystal ball only seemed to emit a strange aura. As for its function, Linley and the others had no idea, but Sesler recognized it at a glance.
Sesler held the crystal ball. The material inside the crystal ball was somewhat different from the rest. Sunlight entering the crystal ball would distort and converge at its core.
Sesler channeled his mental energy into the crystal ball and carefully examined its condition.
"This crystal ball has been refined." Sesler hesitated for a moment, trying to explain it simply. "Its current function is to absorb unprotected souls within a certain area around it, generally within a radius of about ten meters."
"Collect souls?" Linley's heart trembled.
He understood now.
Why the dead city incident had occurred. Clearly, when the silver-robed men were killing, they would hold this crystal ball in one hand while slaughtering with the other. When they killed a person, that person's soul would naturally be absorbed by the crystal ball. Destroying a Blue Lion City, nearly a hundred thousand souls were collected.
"What are they collecting souls for?" Wharton asked in shock. Wharton and Nina were also stunned.
Sesler explained, "Collecting a large number of souls… first of all, since necromancy is inherited from the Sovereign of Death, those who practice necromancy and become gods generally cultivate the Edict of Death. The Edict of Death specializes in the aspect of souls."
"By consuming a large number of souls, some special attacks can be performed." Sesler explained.
"This Edict of Death is really…" Linley felt a bit uncomfortable.
He also knew that the seven elemental laws—earth, fire, water, wind, lightning, light, and darkness—and the four edicts—death, destruction, life, and fate—were different concepts. Laws and edicts were two different things. Edicts should be the rules governing the operation of the world.
The Edict of Death governs 'death'.
"The biggest use of collecting souls is actually to refine and absorb them to strengthen one's own soul." Sesler's words were shocking.
"Strengthen one's own soul?" Linley was truly astonished.
Back then, Dylin had told Linley that there were two choices for becoming a god. The second choice was to form a divine clone, at the cost of splitting the soul in half. The soul is the most fundamental essence of a person—or rather, any living being. Even after becoming a god, if the divine body is destroyed, it can be reformed using energy.
But if the soul is destroyed, death is certain.
During the process of cultivation, the soul also gradually grows.
"Refining a large number of souls and absorbing them to strengthen one's own soul?" Linley found it too exaggerated.
"Yes, but refining souls is extremely difficult." Sesler sighed. "It requires a very thorough understanding of the soul. Even I can't do it. I think that deity-level experts who cultivate the path of death might be able to, but deity-level experts who cultivate other laws would find it very hard to achieve."
Linley nodded inwardly.
Refining other souls to strengthen one's own soul was an incredibly overpowered ability.
If an ordinary Lesser God could do it, it would be too exaggerated. Now it seemed that even among deity-level experts, very few could achieve this.
"I think I've already guessed where that deity-level expert is." Sesler said.
Linley's eyes lit up.
Sesler said calmly, "Combining all the events—like Yale wanting to buy all the prisoners of war, and the silver-robed men destroying cities to collect souls—it's clear that the deity-level expert urgently needs a large number of souls. As for where he is, I think the final gathering point for the large number of prisoners of war is his location."
Linley agreed with this.
"And we also know that the Dawson Conglomerate bought a large number of slaves, claiming they were going to mine a large mineral deposit. The location is in a mountain range on the southwestern border of our Baruch Empire. In that mountain range, there's a large canyon, which is a branch of the Dawson Conglomerate. I think the deity-level expert is likely there." Sesler guessed.
A sinister smile curled at the corner of Sesler's mouth. "Not only that, but Yale arrived so quickly this time. You killed the silver-robed men last night, and he arrived this afternoon. I think Yale was ordered by that deity-level expert last night to deal with you."
Linley nodded slightly.
"Yale is not a Saint-level expert. He came riding a flying magical beast. First, he had to go to the deity-level expert to get the soul-thread poison, then rush to Dragonblood Castle. It only took him about a dozen hours. How fast can a flying magical beast be? So that deity-level expert must be within a few thousand miles. Otherwise, Yale wouldn't have had time to reach Dragonblood Castle."
"And the only large branch of the Dawson Conglomerate within a few thousand miles is that canyon."
Sesler was very certain.
"Yes." Linley nodded slightly. "Wharton, Sesler, Nina… you all go rest now. I'm going to start seclusion and cultivate immediately."
"Brother, so soon?" Wharton was surprised. Linley had said earlier that they would have dinner together tonight, and he would continue his seclusion after dinner.
"Do you think I'm in the mood? Alright, you all go ahead." Linley's gaze turned to the southwest. "Collecting souls? Slaughtering lives? Controlling Yale…" Linley's heart was filled with murderous intent toward that deity-level expert he had never met.
Then, Linley directly left the back garden and entered the micro-plane secret chamber deep beneath Dragonblood Castle.
As soon as Linley stepped into the micro-plane, Delia, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed cultivating, opened her eyes.
"Linley, what's wrong?" Delia asked, puzzled.
Seeing Delia, Linley's heart calmed down. He didn't want her to worry, so he forced a faint smile. "It's nothing. Keep cultivating." Linley sat cross-legged on the ground. Outside the membrane of this micro-plane were the colorful spatial rifts.
"Once I reach the Deity level, the first god I'll kill is that bastard." Linley's heart was filled with killing intent.
Linley took three deep breaths to fully calm himself. Then he immersed himself in the laws of wind elements, continuously deducing and perfecting the profound mystery of velocity…
As he comprehended the vast elemental laws, the three virtual sword shadows representing 'fast,' 'slow,' and 'velocity profound mystery' began to evolve further. The three sword shadows transformed into countless variations, and Linley deduced millions of possibilities in an instant.
Deduction, then cross-referencing 'fast' and 'slow' to gradually gain insights.
Through repeated practical demonstrations, he confirmed whether something was correct or not.
The deeper his understanding, the more clearly Linley realized that the realms of 'fast' and 'slow' were not opposites. They both contained commonalities. Fortunately, Linley had already gained some understanding of both realms, which helped him progress in the 'velocity profound mystery.'
If he had only reached a high level in 'fast' and 'slow' separately, merging them would have been extremely difficult.
Time flowed like water, never ceasing.
The Great Sage also knew that Yale had failed to kill Linley with the soul-thread poison. He was quite surprised by this, as the soul-thread poison was extremely vicious. No Saint-level expert who had been hit by it had ever escaped. Linley was the first to survive the Great Sage's move.
"Let this Saint-level brat live a little longer." The Great Sage didn't care much about a Saint-level expert. If the opponent were a deity-level expert, he might have been more cautious.
But a Saint-level?
He wanted to kill Linley only because Linley had killed his silver-robed guards, which angered him.
"He didn't kill Yale. He's really too 'soft-hearted.' Someone like that would have been killed long ago in the Gobada Prison Plane. Well, this saves me some soul power, so I don't need to control anyone else in the Dawson Conglomerate."
This matter only crossed the Great Sage's mind briefly before he dismissed it and focused on refining the large number of souls.
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
In the micro-plane secret chamber deep beneath Dragonblood Castle, Linley sat cross-legged on the ground, immersed in cultivation. In his mind, the three virtual sword shadows continuously evolved. Just as the sword shadow representing the 'velocity profound mystery' demonstrated a mysterious trace…
"It's here."
With a flash of inspiration, Linley naturally felt something—he clearly sensed that he had crossed a certain boundary. This was the boundary between the Saint level and the Deity level.
Linley opened his eyes and looked up!
"Buzz~"
A vast, soul-shaking power suddenly descended, completely enveloping Linley. The space around him twisted, as if isolating him from the rest of the area. Linley's entire body floated up involuntarily.
Floated up against his will.
"So terrifying." Linley could sense that vast, boundless, ancient, and peculiar power. To be precise, it felt like a kind of law or edict. Before it, Linley felt like an ant.
"This must be the world's rule for determining whether one becomes a god." Linley's heart was filled with awe.