Chapter 28: The Element of Fire
"Puchi!"
Crimson blood splattered against the grayish-yellow mountain wall, chunks of flesh falling from midair.
"Every single one of you, die." Bebe's face twisted with ferocity. Dozens of phantom images appeared in various places. Using his Shadow Clone Technique, Bebe appeared here and there, engaging in a frenzied slaughter. Madness burned in Bebe's eyes. "That bastard Salomon, he's a bastard!"
"If it weren't for Salomon deliberately messing things up, how could Nini and I not be together?" As he thought this, his dagger directly sliced an opponent's divine artifact in two, then cleaved the enemy's head open, causing it to burst apart.
"Nini, Nini!"
Bebe's mind was filled with thoughts of Nisse and Salomon, yet the speed of his killing only increased.
Killing—Bebe vented his fury wildly. He longed so much to be with Nisse. Whenever he saw Linley and Delia together, he thought of himself and Nisse. But this Infernal Realm was vast, and Nisse still had to go to the Azure Floating Continent.
Who knew when they would meet again?
"Kill, kill!!!"
Bebe slaughtered madly, without restraint.
"Run, run!" The bandits who had not yet died screamed in terror, scattering in all directions. The bandit leader, in particular, was pale-faced. He had never imagined that a mid-level god could be so monstrous.
Easily sweeping through them all!
"It's over, my men are finished." The leader felt a pang of sorrow in his heart. But even in his grief, the moment he saw Linley and Bebe, these two harbingers of death, he trembled with fear. "No matter what, I have to save my own skin first."
The leader abandoned everyone else and fled directly.
When Linley and Bebe killed the enemies before them, they found that the other bandits had already fled in all directions. Linley couldn't be bothered to chase them, but Bebe, still seething with murderous intent, let out a furious roar, followed by a high-pitched cry that pierced the sky.
A phantom image of a Soul Devouring Rat appeared behind Bebe. He opened his mouth, fixing his gaze on the bandit leader in the distance and the person beside him.
"Ah!" The bandit leader, about to escape, suddenly found himself unable to move. Not only him, but also the mid-level god beside him.
Immediately, the divine sparks of these two mid-level gods flew out. From the bandit leader's body, two divine sparks emerged, while from his subordinate's mind, only one flew out. These three divine sparks flew directly into Bebe's mouth.
The two corpses fell from midair.
Linley watched Bebe with some concern. It was clear that Bebe's state wasn't right.
"Bebe?" Linley flew over.
Bebe turned around, shook his head, and then smiled. "Boss, don't worry. I'm fine. I was just feeling a bit stifled earlier and needed to vent all that frustration. I feel much better now. Those bandits were blind to come robbing us—they were practically asking for death!"
Seeing Bebe's expression, Linley breathed a sigh of relief.
"Those bandits probably won't dare to mess with us anymore," Linley said with a smile.
In truth, Linley had long been prepared for this day. Everywhere in the Infernal Realm, territories were claimed by various forces. Desolate places were usually occupied by ordinary bandits, raiders, or tribes, while more prosperous areas were controlled by major powers.
The mountain range Linley had chosen was very ordinary.
Linley guessed there were no strong experts here. After getting through today, no one in the surrounding area would dare to provoke them.
"Oh, I forgot to grab the spatial rings from those corpses. Even if it's not much money, we can't waste it." Bebe flew downward directly. Linley couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Bebe in a good mood, Linley felt relieved. "Bebe, wait for me." Linley also rushed down.
This massacre had indeed intimidated the people nearby. The original bandit group of eighty-two had been reduced to fewer than thirty after this ordeal. This small bandit group nervously gathered their survivors, but they didn't dare to disturb Linley and his companions, not even approaching them.
And so, in peaceful cultivation, the years flowed by like water...
* * *
"Buzz..."
In the sixteenth year of their cultivation here, the fluctuations of the laws of the universe descended.
Inside the cave dwelling, Delia and Bebe watched the scene before them with a mix of surprise and anticipation. Linley himself floated in midair, enveloped by the strange energy of the laws of the universe. Intense fire elements gathered above him, then condensed into a fire-element divine spark.
"Boss, he's become a god in fire too!" Bebe said joyfully.
Delia was also filled with excitement and happiness.
Talent in cultivation was crucial. If one lacked talent in a certain aspect, no amount of training would lead to success. Linley had extremely high talent in earth and wind, making his progress in those areas swift. His talent in fire was decent but weaker compared to earth and wind.
However, with his soul now incredibly powerful, and having cultivated for over twenty years on the metallic lifeform, Linley had finally mastered the simplest profound mystery of the fire-element laws: the Element of Fire.
This time, Linley once again chose to split his soul. After all, he now possessed a large amount of amethysts and immense wealth, making it easy to strengthen his soul.
"Crackle..."
A Linley in a fiery red robe with fiery red hair was born out of thin air—this was Linley's fire-element divine clone.
A moment later, the fluctuations of the laws of the universe dissipated, and the fire-element divine clone merged back into Linley's main body. In the soul ocean of Linley's main body, powerful soul force rippled gently like waves. Above the soul ocean floated a hazy, seven-colored sword-shaped soul.
Beneath this seven-colored sword-shaped soul, on the surface of the soul ocean, floated three Linleys. They emitted a faint earthy yellow glow, a pale cyan glow, and a fiery red glow, respectively. The three Linleys formed a triangle, positioned directly beneath the sword-shaped soul.
Linley opened his eyes and looked at Delia and Bebe, whose faces were full of joy.
"Boss, you've got three divine clones now. Including your main body, that's four," Bebe said, rubbing his nose. "Compared to you, I'm embarrassing. So far, including my main body, I only have two bodies."
"Bebe, you have two, but I only have one. Isn't that even more embarrassing?" Delia teased.
Linley couldn't help but laugh.
Both Delia and Bebe were happy for Linley. Having an extra divine clone meant an extra life and also greater potential for future achievements.
"My fire-element divine clone is only a low-level god clone, still very weak. For now, I'll still rely on my earth and wind clones," Linley thought to himself. He knew that having four bodies was probably the limit for now, as he was completely clueless about other elemental laws.
Lightning, water, light, darkness—he was utterly in the dark about all of them.
"Without talent, I can't even sense the elemental laws. How can I cultivate? Even if I trained for a million years, it would be hard to succeed." Linley began to understand why cultivation became harder the further one progressed.
Currently, he had already mastered the Profound Mysteries of Earth's Pulse and the Element of Earth. Over the past sixteen years, he had also made good progress in Earth Travel.
"The earth laws have six profound mysteries in total. I've only reached the third. It seems fast now, but the further I go, the slower it will probably get," Linley thought. After all, even the simplest fire-element profound mystery, the Element of Fire, had taken him a full twenty years to master, despite his powerful soul.
Back then, the Profound Mystery of the Element of Earth had taken him only two years to master, and that was without fusing it with Earth's Pulse.
Moreover, his soul had been much weaker at that time.
This was the difference in talent!
Perhaps in cultivation and comprehension, it depended on one's diligence and sensitivity of the mind. Some people, upon seeing a scene, would naturally make connections in their minds and suddenly comprehend something. This had nothing to do with elemental affinity—it was determined by one's personal thought processes and spiritual insights.
But the clarity or fuzziness of one's perception of elemental laws was determined by talent.
"Boss, what are you daydreaming about?" Bebe suddenly snapped Linley out of his thoughts.
"Nothing, just random thoughts. Come on, let's go to the hall to celebrate." Many of the spatial rings they had collected contained fine wine. Linley turned to Delia and suddenly asked, "Delia, how's your divine spark refinement going?"
"I've refined eight profound mysteries. I estimate that in a few more years, I'll comprehend the ninth," Delia said with a smile.
"In a few more years, we can finally leave," Bebe said with some anticipation.
Linley glanced at Bebe, feeling a pang of guilt. Bebe had stayed with him here for sixteen years. By now, Nisse and her brother Salomon had probably already arrived at Azure City, or even set off on their journey to the Azure Floating Continent.
When Bebe would see Nisse again was anyone's guess.
"Bebe, let's go drink." Linley put his arm around Bebe's shoulder, and the two brothers walked out together.
* * *
In the blink of an eye, nearly five more years passed. Delia finally fully refined the high-level god spark and stepped into the realm of a high-level god. From the outside, especially seeing the demon badge on Delia's chest, it was clear—she was a high-level god demon!
A high-level god demon was quite intimidating.
"We've lived here for twenty years. I've grown a bit attached to it." Linley looked back at the cave dwelling. Delia couldn't help but laugh and teased, "What, do you want to live here a while longer? How about another few decades?"
"Haha, let's go."
Linley waved his hand, and a black panther-shaped metallic lifeform appeared in midair. The three of them flew into it. The metallic lifeform immediately turned into a streak of light, heading east. Linley and his companions now had over ten metallic lifeforms.
These metallic lifeforms had all been found among the hundred-plus spatial rings they had collected. After all, many high-level gods bought metallic lifeforms.
Inside the metallic lifeform, Linley, Delia, and Bebe sat on chairs, looking at the scenery outside through the transparent metal, drinking fine wine as they traveled.
"Boss, this metallic lifeform is so strange. Normally, humans and magical beasts can't be stored in spatial rings, but these metallic lifeforms can. Also, I feel like they have very low intelligence," Bebe said.
Linley nodded slightly. He had noticed this too.
"Metallic lifeforms might be special in some way," Linley said.
What Linley didn't know was that the metallic lifeforms sold in places like Violet Thorn Castle had been specially modified. They were almost like vehicles, possessing only simple consciousness.
Traveling by metallic lifeform, Linley and his companions continued their journey.
The metallic lifeform stopped again. Linley smiled at Delia. "Delia, I'll have to trouble you to go out again." Delia smiled helplessly. "There are so many bandits and raiders, and they're all so annoying. They can't detect me with their divine sense, but the moment I step out, they scatter."
Sure enough—
As soon as Delia stepped out of the metallic lifeform, the hundred or so mid-level gods, realizing they couldn't detect her with their divine sense and seeing her demon badge, immediately panicked.
"She's a high-level god demon!"
The bandits scattered in terror, fleeing in all directions.
Delia returned to the metallic lifeform. "Let's keep going."
Bebe laughed heartily. "Haha, Delia, that high-level god demon badge really is intimidating."
Delia nodded. "It makes sense. Demon trials are inherently difficult—survival of the fittest. Demon missions are also dangerous. When fighting, it's high-level god against high-level god, mid-level god against mid-level god... Generally, high-level god demons who survive several missions have some real strength."
Linley nodded thoughtfully. That made sense.
"Of course, there's another possibility: a high-level god demon might be weak but part of a team," Delia said with a smile. "That's how they survive missions without dying. Regardless, when bandits encounter a high-level god demon, they usually flee immediately."