Chapter 24: Purple Blood, Coiling Dragon
The wind-type divine power within his body poured into the Purple Blood Soft Sword, and strands of spatial blades actually materialized out of thin air along the sword's edge. At the same time, a faint bloody light flowed across the sword's body, accompanied by a continuous, unending sword hum.
"Linley, stop, stop quickly!" Delia cried out in alarm.
Linley immediately ceased infusing divine power and looked at Delia with confusion. "Delia, what's wrong?"
Delia's face was pale, and she stared at the Purple Blood Soft Sword in terror, shocked. "This sword, just now..."
"What happened? Tell me quickly." Linley pressed.
Delia's complexion gradually returned to a rosy hue, but she was still shaken. "Just now, when the Purple Blood Soft Sword emitted that sword hum, I don't know why, but my soul began to tremble. The energy inside me became chaotic, and it felt like my body was somewhat out of control."
"Oh?" Linley's eyes lit up with surprise.
To Linley, the sword hum sounded ordinary, but he never expected it to have such an effect on others.
"Linley, can you make the Purple Blood Soft Sword stop making that sword hum? I can't bear it." Delia said apologetically.
Linley realized it was his fault and quickly said, "Delia, don't worry, I won't let the Purple Blood Soft Sword make that sound again." Inwardly, Linley was overjoyed by what had just happened. In fact, just seeing the spatial blades that appeared on the sword's edge was enough to thrill him.
Without using any laws, merely infusing it with divine power, it had become this sharp.
"A divine artifact. Indeed, only by using divine power can its true power be unleashed. In the past, I was only using the material of the Purple Blood Soft Sword itself in battle."
Linley then controlled his spiritual energy to enter the interior of the Purple Blood Soft Sword. Inside, he could only sense a powerful, malevolent aura. When his spiritual energy touched this aura, Linley clearly saw the scenes contained within that terrifying force.
An endless sea of blood.
Corpses and bones of all kinds of races floated in the blood sea. Some were giant corpses dozens of meters tall, some were white bones emitting a green glow... some had scales, some had horns on their foreheads, some had four arms...
Countless corpses drifted in the blood sea.
Vaguely, Linley saw blurry images. In one image, there was a purple, eerie longsword dripping with blood. In another, a strange man with purple hair and a purple robe appeared. He had eyebrows as sharp as swords, and his eyes seemed to carry a hint of bloodlust.
Just sensing it with his spiritual energy, Linley felt a pressure, a suffocating pressure.
"That was the Purple Blood Soft Sword," Linley realized clearly. "Was that purple-haired man its previous owner?"
Scenes of slaughter flashed by like lightning, blurry or occasionally clear, but then all the images dissipated.
"Ridiculous, ridiculous." Linley looked at the Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand and laughed.
He had originally hoped to discover how to use the Purple Blood Soft Sword from within it.
"No matter how powerful a divine artifact is, it's just a weapon, not a living being. How could it tell me how to unleash its special attacks? I have to figure it out myself." Linley understood. Perhaps the previous owner of the Purple Blood Soft Sword knew how to use it.
But Linley couldn't find that previous owner.
Perhaps that previous owner was already dead. After all, if he weren't dead, how could a blood-bound divine artifact end up sealing a passage?
"At least I now know two things. After infusing it with divine power, the Purple Blood Soft Sword is incredibly sharp. Combined with my Speed Essence—Dimensional Blade, my attack power will be much stronger." Linley was very confident. "And that sword hum can shake the soul and affect the opponent."
In battle, if the sword hum kept ringing, the opponent would be affected while he remained unaffected. That would be a huge advantage.
"How to use the sword hum more effectively will require further exploration." Linley then put the Purple Blood Soft Sword into his spatial ring and turned his attention to what he valued most... the Coiling Dragon Ring!
This ring was discovered in the ancestral home.
Its previous owner was Grandpa Doehring. Because of this ring, Linley had met Grandpa Doehring and embarked on the path of a strong warrior.
When Linley looked at the Coiling Dragon Ring, his excitement calmed. He seemed to see the kind, white-haired Grandpa Doehring again. Grandpa Doehring had always dreamed of reaching the Divine Plane, but after entering the Coiling Dragon Ring, he lost that chance. By training Linley, he perhaps hoped Linley would reach the pinnacle.
"Grandpa Doehring, today I have finally stepped into the Divine Plane," Linley said softly in his heart.
"If only you were still alive, Grandpa Doehring," Linley sighed inwardly.
Taking a deep breath, Linley focused and infused wind-type divine power into the Coiling Dragon Ring. But he found, "It's useless? Infusing divine power into the Coiling Dragon Ring does nothing?" Linley was puzzled. Divine artifacts usually react when infused with divine power.
But the Coiling Dragon Ring had no reaction.
"Is it a special kind of divine artifact?" Linley withdrew his divine power and instead permeated his spiritual energy into the Coiling Dragon Ring.
When Linley became a god, the laws of the universe had enveloped his soul. Although his soul was split in two, after contacting the laws, his soul underwent another transformation—a fundamental one.
Those who became gods through their own power all experienced this transformation.
Linley's soul transformation naturally changed his vast spiritual energy, which originated from his soul. When his spiritual energy entered the Coiling Dragon Ring, a faint green light flickered across it, and Linley sensed a peculiar force within the ring.
"What is this?"
Linley was astonished.
Suddenly, a powerful, overwhelming aura touched Linley's spiritual energy. The sheer strength of this aura made Linley tremble from the depths of his heart. It was too powerful. The aura left in the Coiling Dragon Ring was far stronger than that in the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
"Lucky little one," a deep, low voice sounded in Linley's mind. "This is a ring I loved in life. It is a soul-defense Sovereign artifact. However, it is now damaged. It failed to protect me and was destroyed. To repair it, you must slowly nurture it with your spiritual energy until it gradually recovers... As for the time, I cannot predict. I truly wish I could know who obtained this ring, but I no longer have that chance. Never again..."
The deep, low voice gradually faded away.
Linley was stunned.
A soul-defense Sovereign artifact? Damaged?
"Sovereign artifact?" Linley's body trembled slightly. He had only heard of divine artifacts before. No one had ever told him about Sovereign artifacts.
Above the Saint Realm were Demigods, Lesser Gods, Greater Gods, and even higher, Sovereigns.
Weapons also had divine artifacts and Sovereign artifacts.
"A soul-defense Sovereign artifact?" Linley sensed the peculiar force within the Coiling Dragon Ring. "Since it defends the soul, then..." Linley immediately controlled this peculiar force to flow into his soul space. Instantly—
A transparent membrane, formed from countless scale-like patterns, covered the soul ocean, enveloping both the divine spark and his main body. This transparent membrane carried the aura of spiritual energy, suggesting it was a scale-like barrier formed from that type of power.
However...
In the center of this transparent membrane was a large gap, as if something had cut through it.
"Damaged. It really is damaged." Linley sighed inwardly.
For a god, the most important thing was the soul!
A soul-defense divine artifact was naturally precious. A soul-defense Sovereign artifact was even rarer and harder to come by. Unfortunately, this one was damaged.
For example, soul-thread attacks could cover the entire soul. If a large number of soul threads surged in, they would definitely enter the soul ocean through this gap. Although the rest of the transparent membrane was extremely tough, this single gap greatly reduced its value.
"Repair it with spiritual energy?"
Linley smiled bitterly.
He could infer that the deep, low voice likely belonged to a Sovereign who had fallen. This soul-defense Sovereign artifact had been directly breached. That voice might have been a final message left by the Sovereign before death.
Of course, it might not have been a Sovereign.
Having a Sovereign artifact didn't necessarily mean one was a Sovereign.
"Repairing it? Even that powerful being couldn't predict the time. It will definitely take a very long time." Linley tried to merge his spiritual energy with the scale-like transparent membrane. A large amount of spiritual energy flowed through the membrane, even passing through the gap.
At the same time, a large amount of spiritual energy gathered at the gap, forming a patch.
This patch, made of Linley's spiritual energy, blocked the gap.
"The defense of my spiritual energy patch is certainly very low." However, Linley found that as he continuously nurtured the transparent membrane with his spiritual energy, the patch at the gap slowly improved in quality at an extremely slow rate.
But the improvement was far too slow.
"To reach the defensive level of the other areas of this scale-like transparent membrane would probably take tens of millions of years." Linley shook his head and sighed. "But for now, I only need to focus my spiritual energy on defending this small gap. I don't need to worry about the other areas. This has indeed improved my soul defense quite a bit."
This damaged soul-defense Sovereign artifact was actually less effective than an ordinary soul-defense divine artifact.
"Huh?" Linley's spiritual energy permeated the Coiling Dragon Ring again, only to find...
After the energy of the transparent membrane left, there were still two other auras within the ring.
One energy emanated from a single drop of golden blood. The other energy came from three drops of cyan liquid.
"Golden blood?" For some reason, sensing this drop of golden blood made Linley's main body tremble. Without hesitation, Linley immediately transformed back into his main body and stored his divine clone in his soul space.
Indeed, the sensation was now clearer.
The blood in his body seemed to boil. Strangely, this drop of golden blood flew out of the Coiling Dragon Ring and directly merged into Linley's main body.
"What?" Linley was shocked.
"Linley?" Delia, who had been watching him closely, saw the drop of golden blood fly into Linley's body and was also surprised. But then, she grew alarmed because Linley let out a pained low growl.
"Delia, I... I'm fine!" Linley gritted his teeth.
Seeing Linley's twisted expression and twitching muscles, Delia couldn't believe he was fine.
Compared to the time his soul was split, at least Linley was still conscious now.
"Ah!" Linley couldn't help but roar, looking up. "Boom!" The sky-blue robe on his body shattered into countless pieces, and a large number of cold, gleaming dragon scales emerged from his skin, along with a dragon tail.
Linley was involuntarily undergoing the Dragonblood Warrior transformation.
"Linley." Delia looked at him, her eyes full of worry.
The deep cyan scales on Linley's body began to slowly change. They turned into cyan scales, identical to those of a true Dragonblood Warrior. Then, a faint golden halo appeared on his scales.
Cyan-golden scales covered Linley's entire body.
The spikes on Linley's forehead and back also began to transform...
"Ah!" Linley let out a low, pained roar. The pain this time was far more intense than when he first drank the blood of the Spiked-back Iron-armored Dragon and transformed. However, Linley's willpower was now much stronger, and he wouldn't faint like he did in his youth.
Despite the excruciating pain, Linley was ecstatic.
"What exactly is that golden blood? My body... has become so strong!" The Dragonblood Warrior body was still slowly transforming, but Linley could sense the immense power within him. Every scale, shimmering with cyan-golden light, and the spikes on his forehead were incredibly sharp.
This was far stronger than a divine body.