Chapter 28: Bronze Gong Mountain
In the tavern of Hess City, everyone was in a state of shock.
The powerful Lord Reg had been like a child before that straw-hatted youth, utterly incapable of resistance, and was directly killed. And from the looks of it, this straw-hatted youth was still taking orders from the seated young man. That seated young man's strength was even more terrifying!
"Them?" Belita, leaning against her father, stared in astonishment at Linley and Bebe.
Linley, at this moment, was frowning.
"Sir, you called for me?" The silver-haired middle-aged man was completely anxious.
He understood that if Linley and Bebe wanted to kill him, he would be dead without a doubt.
"My boss called you over," Bebe shouted, glaring. The silver-haired middle-aged man's body trembled slightly, and he immediately obediently walked to the table, respectfully awaiting Linley's instructions.
"My name is Sadi!" The silver-haired middle-aged man honestly confessed his name.
"You're from the Gebados Plane Prison, right?" Linley asked calmly. While questioning, Linley also activated his 'Divine Domain,' preventing the ordinary people in the tavern from hearing their conversation.
"Yes, sir." Sadi appeared extremely cooperative.
After all, Reg's corpse was still lying on the ground. Sadi understood that if these two murderous gods were displeased, they might kill him at any moment. For now, he had to cooperate as much as possible to satisfy them, which was the only way to keep his life.
Linley's gaze suddenly sharpened as he stared at Sadi and said in a low voice, "I ask you, who is the master of Bronze Gong Mountain?"
The master of Bronze Gong Mountain!
A figure that made Linley feel worried. That Reg had said before he died that his teacher was the 'Master of Bronze Gong Mountain.' Being able to be the teacher of a Saint-level limit expert meant he was no ordinary person. Since he had killed Reg, Linley had to find out the identity of this Master of Bronze Gong Mountain.
"You mean Teacher?" Sadi was slightly taken aback.
Linley nodded slightly.
"We don't know Teacher's real name either. Because he lives on Bronze Gong Mountain, we all call him the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain." Sadi's eyes showed a look of admiration when he mentioned the 'Master of Bronze Gong Mountain.' "Teacher is the greatest expert I have ever seen."
"Oh?" Linley squinted his eyes.
Sadi continued, "Although we escaped from the Gebados Plane Prison back to the Yulan Continent only twenty years ago, during this time, two of the Saint-level limit experts Teacher guided have made breakthroughs and achieved godhood on their own." Sadi's eyes were full of respect. "Being able to help us break through our bottlenecks—how can such a great expert not be worthy of admiration?"
"What?"
Even the calm Linley's expression changed.
Even Bebe beside him couldn't believe it and said, "Are you saying that the two people who reached the Demigod level in recent years did so because of your teacher's guidance?"
A bottleneck, by its very nature, is hard to break through.
Even someone as powerful as Lord Beirut, when he knew that Desri and others were stuck at their bottlenecks, could only encourage them to strengthen their resolve. He couldn't say much more... Being able to guide a Saint-level limit expert to break through their bottleneck—such an expert must have an astonishing grasp of the laws.
"What level of expert is the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain?" Linley immediately asked.
"I don't know," Sadi shook his head. "But Teacher's two brothers should be Deities of the Middle Rank."
Linley and Bebe exchanged a glance.
Brothers who were Deities of the Middle Rank? Then the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain was at least a Deity of the Middle Rank as well.
"I've gotten us into trouble." Bebe drooped his head and said to Linley.
Killing a disciple of such a powerful expert—even with Bebe's thick skin, he knew things were serious.
Linley gave a reassuring smile. "Bebe, it seems our journey is coming to an end." Having provoked such a formidable enemy, it was best to hurry back to Dragonblood Castle.
"Yeah." Bebe nodded.
"You don't need to worry, sir." Seeing Linley and Bebe's conversation, Sadi understood Bebe's thoughts and quickly said, "Please rest assured, both of you. No one will come looking for trouble over you killing Reg."
Linley and Bebe were somewhat surprised.
"Oh?" Linley looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
Bebe, however, said, "Sadi, doesn't your teacher stand up for his disciples?"
Sadi quickly replied, "Both of you, what status does the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain hold? Reg and I were only Saint-level limit experts—how could we possibly become his disciples?"
"But you call him Teacher?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
Sadi laughed self-deprecatingly. "Both of you, we call the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain 'Teacher,' but that's just our way of addressing him. The Master of Bronze Gong Mountain has never considered us his disciples."
Linley frowned. "Explain clearly."
Sadi explained, "Both of you, we all escaped from the plane prison and have been living here ever since. Later, we heard that there was a peerless expert on Bronze Gong Mountain who occasionally guided cultivators who came to visit him. Many experts went to pay their respects to the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain. Reg and I were just two of them. Because we both received some guidance from the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain, we respectfully call him Teacher. But the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain has never acknowledged us as his disciples."
"If we had a teacher like that, we wouldn't have suffered so much in the plane prison."
Linley and Bebe suddenly understood.
"You're both pretty thick-skinned," Bebe said with a grin.
Sadi could only smile awkwardly.
"This Master of Bronze Gong Mountain is truly an extraordinary person," Linley praised. An expert of such caliber who would occasionally guide cultivators who came to visit him—at least he wasn't someone who hoarded his knowledge.
"You said earlier that the two people who achieved godhood on their own recently did so because of the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain's guidance?" Linley still found it hard to believe.
"Yes," Sadi said with emotion. "This is absolutely true. I even know one of them personally."
"How can we not go and see such an extraordinary person? What do you think, Bebe?" Linley looked at Bebe, who nodded in agreement and then turned to Sadi. "Hey, where is Bronze Gong Mountain?"
"Bronze Gong Mountain is south of the Holy Alliance, in the area heavily occupied by magical beasts. Teacher lives inside one of the large mountains there," Sadi explained. "It's about two thousand miles from here. If both of you go, you might also receive guidance. It's not just Saint-level limit experts who seek Teacher's guidance—Deity-level experts do too."
Linley was even more amazed.
This Master of Bronze Gong Mountain was certainly extraordinary, and Linley grew more eager to meet him.
"But both of you must be mentally prepared. Teacher decides who to guide based on his mood," Sadi explained. "When we go to Bronze Gong Mountain, we might have to wait a long time before we're lucky enough to see Teacher."
"If we see him, we see him. If not, we'll treat it as a sightseeing trip," Linley said with a faint smile.
"Let's go. I can't wait any longer," Bebe said impatiently.
Sadi said humbly, "It would be my honor to guide both of you." With that, Sadi led the way out of the tavern. Linley and Bebe followed. Linley kept his Divine Domain active to prevent the people in the tavern from hearing their conversation.
"Both of you..." Belita hurried after them, wanting to express her gratitude, but she was blocked by Linley's Divine Domain.
"Whoosh!"
Three streaks of light shot directly into the air and quickly disappeared into the southern sky.
"Who were those two experts? Even the Saint-level expert Lord Reg was killed in one move." Only then did the group in the tavern dare to speak, one by one stepping out and looking up at the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of Linley and the others.
"That youth was too powerful. He caught a Saint-level expert's blade with just two fingers."
"I say that young man is even more formidable..."
The group in the tavern excitedly discussed among themselves, while Belita looked up at the direction where Linley and the others had disappeared. She could only keep this gratitude in her heart.
The Bronze Gong Mountain range was actually not too far from Linley's hometown, 'Bird Town,' and was also an area where magical beasts roamed.
However, with those experts living there, the magical beasts no longer dared to approach.
"That's Bronze Gong Mountain!" In midair, Sadi, his robes fluttering in the wind, pointed to a mountain range below.
Beside Sadi were Linley and Bebe.
"It doesn't seem very crowded?" Linley was somewhat surprised. According to his understanding, if many experts came to pay their respects to the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain, there should be quite a few people. But the mansion he saw at a glance had very few people.
Sadi explained, "Teacher's two brothers once told us that those who have received Teacher's guidance must not disturb him again for ten years."
"Oh." Linley understood.
After all, the number of experts on the Yulan Continent was limited. Not many probably even knew of the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain's existence. With the rule that those who had received guidance couldn't disturb him for ten years, it was no wonder there were so few people now.
"Let's go down." Linley was the first to fly downward.
The Master of Bronze Gong Mountain's residence was a quiet mansion. When Linley and the others arrived before it, they couldn't help but marvel.
"This mansion..." Linley could feel the surging earth-element energy emanating from it.
Sadi also looked at it with admiration. "This mansion was formed by solidifying earth elements. Look at the walls—there isn't a single crack. Being able to control elements so easily to create such a mansion is truly remarkable."
"You don't understand," Linley said seriously.
"Oh?" Sadi looked at Linley in surprise.
Linley stared solemnly at the mansion before him. Sadi was only a Saint-level limit expert and didn't practice the Laws of the Earth, so he naturally didn't know how extraordinary a mansion formed by solidifying earth elements was. But Linley understood.
"Whether it's the 'Earthguard Saint Armor' or the 'Earth Guardian' formed by forbidden magic's elemental condensation, they all have a time limit," Linley said incredulously.
He believed that since someone had used this to build a mansion, they couldn't possibly re-condense it every hour.
"Moreover, for earth elements to condense into such a color..." Linley looked at the mansion's ancient black hue. "This is the color of Blackstone!" Linley knew that when one reached the Deity level and used the method of the Earthguard Saint Armor, the resulting Earthguard Saint Armor would be at the 'Blackstone' level.
Even a Blackstone-level Earthguard Saint Armor wouldn't last long.
Yet someone had used it to form a mansion?
"More visitors?" The mansion's door creaked open, and a bald, burly man glanced outside.
Sadi immediately bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Lord Burgess."
"You again?" The bald, burly man frowned. "Oh, right. Last time you came was over ten years ago." With that, the bald, burly man looked at Linley and Bebe, his gaze carrying a hint of curiosity as he studied them for a long time.
Linley and Bebe also bowed respectfully.
"My third brother wants the two of you to come in. As for you, go rest somewhere else," the bald, burly man said.
"Congratulations to both of you." Sadi wasn't annoyed at all; instead, he said to Linley and Bebe.
Not everyone who came to pay respects to the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain was received immediately. Sadi bowed and then left on his own.
"Mr. Burgess?" Linley began.
"I don't know what's going on. My third brother wants to see the two of you. You're really lucky," the bald, burly man said as he led Linley and Bebe into the mansion. "Listen carefully. Be respectful when you see my third brother."
Linley and Bebe exchanged a glance and smiled as they observed the mansion.
This mansion, entirely formed from earth elements, made anyone who lived here feel completely at ease. In the courtyard of the mansion, two seemingly gentle middle-aged men were chatting and laughing with each other.
"Is one of them the Master of Bronze Gong Mountain?" Linley's gaze fell on the two men.