Chapter 13: Crisis
Second chapter today!
"Then I wish you, Lord Linley, and your companion a successful return." The silver-haired old man Gaulun said with a faint smile. Suddenly, as if recalling something, he quickly added, "Oh, by the way, Lord Linley, I don't know if you're aware, but once you participate in a planar war, you cannot return until this planar war ends."
"Hmm?" Linley turned his head to look at him.
"You truly didn't know, Lord Linley." The silver-haired old man Gaulun laughed. "This is the rule. You may choose to enter at any time, but everyone... must wait until the war ends to leave. You cannot leave midway, nor is it possible to do so."
"We have to wait over eight hundred years." Linley frowned.
His original plan was to hurry and finish the mission as quickly as possible with Bebe, then rush back.
"I was too arrogant. That Commander is not so easy to kill. Eight hundred years... I'll have to fight for eight hundred years inside." At this moment, Linley understood why many Lords and Prefects were unwilling to enter the planar battlefield. Because even if you obtained the military merits you needed, you still had to stay until the very end. Even if you didn't attack others, others would attack you.
"Boss, let's go. Let's head in." Bebe was completely unafraid.
Linley nodded, and immediately flew toward the spatial gate with Bebe.
It was five meters wide and ten meters high, emitting a faint black light all over. Linley and Bebe flew straight into the spatial gate, as if sinking into water. The two of them vanished into the empty hall.
"I wonder if they'll make it out alive." Gaulun shook his head slightly.
When Linley was on the Yulan continent, he had once passed through a spatial gate to the plane where the Necropolis of the Gods was located.
But this time, the feeling of passing through the planar gate was completely different.
"This spatial gate is actually a long tunnel." Linley was somewhat astonished, and Bebe also looked around in surprise.
It was a tunnel five meters wide and ten meters high, with streaks of flowing light racing along the walls. Everything appeared dazzlingly beautiful. Linley and Bebe flew forward along the direction of the spatial tunnel. Linley was deeply shaken: "This tunnel seems to be warping space itself."
Flying through it, Linley felt a sense of temporal and spatial dislocation.
"Boss, if I attacked this tunnel, do you think it would collapse?" Bebe spoke up.
Linley's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this, and he glared at Bebe: "Bebe, don't mess around. If this planar tunnel really collapses, and we end up in the spatial turbulence, we'd be in deep trouble." Linley knew very well that even the most powerful Highgod, once caught in spatial turbulence, could perish.
"I was just saying." Bebe muttered.
Suddenly—
Linley noticed a faint light ahead in the spatial tunnel: "Hmm? We're here?"
Linley and Bebe shot straight out of the tunnel.
"Welcome, two lords." A calm, unassuming voice sounded. Before Linley and Bebe could even observe the planar battlefield's environment, they looked toward the source of the voice. Ahead, a dense crowd of people stood in a dark mass. Linley swept his gaze over them: "At least several hundred people!"
But Linley also noticed the emblem aura on them.
It was the same as their own side!
Linley breathed a sigh of relief. The speaker was a red-haired, stern-faced woman. She continued, "Two lords, is this your first time on the planar battlefield, or do you have past experience?"
Linley frowned slightly.
"Please don't mind, my lord," the stern red-haired woman quickly said with a smile. "The spatial gate from the Underworld to here is under our watch. Our Lord has instructed us that if any newcomers to the planar battlefield are unfamiliar with it, he can receive them and provide some information."
Linley and Bebe exchanged a glance.
"Boss, let's go. What's there to fear?" Bebe transmitted mentally.
Linley also felt that since he was completely unfamiliar with this planar battlefield, it would be good to learn something.
"Alright, lead the way then." Linley spoke up.
"Please follow me." The red-haired woman immediately led Linley and Bebe off. As they walked, Linley and Bebe carefully sensed the planar battlefield. After a brief assessment, Linley was amazed: "The gravity of this planar battlefield is even greater than that of the Underworld or Hell! It's the strongest gravity I've ever encountered in any plane. And the range of my divine sense seems to be even more restricted."
Linley noticed that his divine sense was now confined to only about a hundred meters.
"Two lords, legend has it that this planar battlefield was jointly created by the four Sovereigns," the red-haired woman said with a smile. "Even the four Higher Planes like the Underworld and the Celestial Realm were each created separately by the four Sovereigns. This planar battlefield, in terms of stability, far surpasses the Higher Planes. Here, even a Commander would find it difficult to tear through space."
Linley was inwardly shocked.
The more stable a plane, the stronger its gravity generally was, and the greater its binding force.
Linley glanced upward.
Above the planar battlefield, there were no stars. At the highest points, there were only chaotic, multicolored spatial streams. The reason the entire planar battlefield wasn't plunged into darkness was due to the faint illumination from those colorful spatial streams. This kept the entire battlefield in a state of perpetual gloom.
"Hey, what's going on up there?" Bebe asked.
The red-haired woman laughed: "The sky above the planar battlefield is very dangerous. If you fly upward to a certain height, you'll occasionally encounter spatial tears. The higher you go, the denser the spatial tears become... until you enter the spatial turbulence. So be careful during battle—don't accidentally dash into the spatial turbulence."
Linley and Bebe exchanged another glance.
This damn place really had a harsh environment.
"The most important thing to avoid in combat on the planar battlefield is—don't fly too high, and don't burrow too deep into the ground!" the red-haired woman said with a faint smile. "If you dig a bit too deep underground, you might encounter spatial tears. The deeper you go, the denser the spatial tears."
Linley nodded slightly.
"What a hassle," Bebe muttered.
As they talked, Linley noticed that the number of soldiers around them was increasing. They had clearly arrived at a large military camp. The red-haired woman led Linley and Bebe skillfully to a very ordinary tent. She then instructed them, "Two lords, please do not approach."
Linley and Bebe were puzzled. They couldn't even get close to the tent? But they didn't ask further.
The red-haired woman then spoke respectfully toward the tent: "My lord, two lords have just arrived from the Underworld's spatial gate. I have brought them here."
"Oh?" A figure emerged from the tent.
It was a burly, bald young man in a thick black robe. He had a red mole between his eyebrows. He glanced at Linley and Bebe and said with some doubt, "You two, I don't think I've seen you before."
"My boss is the new Lord of Redrock," Bebe said directly.
"Oh." The bald young man in black glanced at Linley but didn't fully trust him. He said indifferently, "Since you've come, it seems this is your first time. I have a map of the planar battlefield here, along with some simple descriptions. You can look at it yourselves." With that, he waved his hand and tossed out a thin, black-covered book.
Linley took it with a faint smile: "Thank you!"
"Boss, that bald guy seems wary of us," Bebe said. "He's even keeping his distance from us and didn't invite us in to sit. We're from the Underworld too, on the same side. Why is he still suspicious of us? I really don't get it."
"He is indeed wary. But never mind, we'll leave soon."
Linley also sensed the bald young man's caution toward them. Though he didn't understand the reason, Linley still spoke up: "We have matters to attend to, so we won't linger here. We'll take our leave now."
"Then be careful on your way, you two." The bald young man finally showed a slight smile. "Nianna, see these two off for me."
"Yes, my lord." The red-haired woman bowed.
Then, under the red-haired woman's guidance, Linley and Bebe left the camp. At the camp's border, the red-haired woman parted ways with Linley and Bebe, watching them leave. She thought to herself, "Strange. My lord invited them over, probably to form an alliance. But... my lord didn't even know them. What a pity! What a pity!"
Since they had come alone from the Underworld, one of the two must be at the Lord or Prefect level.
The bald young man had originally intended to entertain them properly, but since he didn't know Linley and Bebe at all, he didn't pursue further cooperation.
On the vast, desolate land, Linley and Bebe sat side by side at the foot of a hill, flipping through the book that introduced the general geography of the planar battlefield.
"This planar battlefield is actually quite small, only a million miles in radius. But... it's divided into two parts by the Stellar River. Our side of the Dark Divine Realm is on this side of the river, while the army of the Radiant Divine Realm is on the other side." After reading, Linley understood a lot.
Bebe also exclaimed in surprise, "Boss, so the most dangerous thing isn't the high sky or the deep ground, but this Stellar River!"
"Yeah." Linley nodded.
For example, in the sky, you could still fly to a certain height. Only when you reached a specific altitude would you occasionally encounter spatial tears, with the danger increasing the higher you went. Since there was a gradual progression of danger, everyone could be prepared and carefully avoid exceeding that height.
But the Stellar River was different.
Except for a very few safe areas, most of the Stellar River was extremely dangerous.
"This planar battlefield seems to be made of two small planes stitched together. The Stellar River is the seam connecting them. Some connection points are safe, but around those points, spatial turbulence rages." Linley shook his head inwardly. The description in the map seemed quite terrifying. But since Linley and Bebe hadn't seen it for themselves, they couldn't yet judge how dangerous the Stellar River really was.
"We need to kill an enemy Commander, so it looks like we'll have to cross the Stellar River," Bebe muttered.
"No," Linley shook his head. "Just like us, the enemy will also have many Commanders coming in as reinforcements, as well as those acting alone. They want to hunt down our side too. So they'll also cross the Stellar River to come to our side. We don't need to go over there for now; we can encounter them here."
Bebe nodded in agreement.
"Boss, this planar war has already been going on for over a hundred years," Bebe suddenly said.
"Right, so many enemy Commanders have probably already come to our side," Linley said, looking around warily. "Now that we're out here, we have to be careful every moment. This is a battlefield, not a one-on-one challenge. They won't necessarily fight fair."
"What's there to fear? It's better if we run into them," Bebe said confidently.
"Then let's set off."
Linley and Bebe stood up. Since there were no stars in this planar battlefield, they had to rely on distinctive features like tall mountains and rivers to determine their direction.
"Let's head that way." Linley glanced at a low, brownish mountain in the distance and said.
Linley and Bebe then advanced cautiously through the planar battlefield. Apart from the bustling military camps, most places were very quiet. No one knew... whether behind that silence lurked a powerful Commander, perhaps even a powerhouse on the level of Beirut.
"Hmm?" Bebe suddenly turned his head to look into the distance. "Boss, someone's there!"
Linley crouched low, using the weeds to partially conceal himself as he looked into the distance. About a kilometer away, a blurry black figure was moving stealthily.
PS: Second chapter here! Eggplant continues writing the third chapter!