Chapter 3: Arrival!
Having arrived at the planar battlefield for less than half a day, they had already encountered someone moving alone. Linley knew that ordinary soldiers wouldn't act alone.
"Approach!"
Linley transmitted via soul voice. What Linley needed to determine now was whether this figure was on their side or the enemy's. Linley and Bebe quietly crept through the grass toward the figure, not daring to let even a wisp of energy escape, afraid of being discovered. In just a moment, the distance between them shrank to two or three hundred meters.
"Huh? I can't sense his identity badge's aura." Bebe transmitted.
Linley's heart couldn't help but race with excitement: "It's an enemy!"
Those on the same side could all sense each other's badge auras. If they couldn't sense it... that meant enemy!
"Heh heh, I didn't expect to run into an enemy so soon after arriving at the planar battlefield. Probably a commander." Bebe's eyes lit up. "Boss, leave this one to me. I'll take care of him."
"Alright." Linley suppressed his excitement.
"Whoosh!" Bebe suddenly shot up into the air.
At the same time, a hazy, massive phantom of a Soul Devouring Rat appeared behind Bebe. In this moment, Bebe unhesitatingly used his ultimate move—the innate divine ability, Devour Soul. But strangely, that figure didn't fall down. Instead, it turned its head to look at Bebe.
"Boss, I can't sense his divine spark or soul!" Bebe transmitted urgently. "Oh, and there's actually another person nearby. I can sense his badge aura. Not too far from me. He's on our side."
At that moment, a figure emerged from the distance. He also realized he'd been discovered.
"You two!" the gray-robed man said loudly, "Don't attack that black-robed figure. That's my Death God puppet."
"Puppet?" Linley and Bebe were stunned.
"It's a puppet, no wonder we couldn't sense its aura. No wonder Bebe's innate divine ability failed." Linley found it both amusing and frustrating. The gray-robed man, however, turned to leave. Bebe quickly called out, "Hey, don't rush off!" As he spoke, he started to fly over.
"Whoosh!" The Death God puppet darted over, trying to intercept Bebe. At the same time, the puppet spoke in human language, "What are you doing?"
"We're on the same side. Can't we ask a few questions?" Bebe looked at the Death God puppet before him.
The gray-robed man's true body had already left, leaving the Death God puppet behind. Naturally, he wasn't afraid now. Even if he lost it, it would only be the loss of one puppet.
"You two..." the Death God puppet said coldly, "How do I know if you're really on the same side as me? Maybe you killed an ordinary soldier from our side, then performed a blood-bond and used that soldier's identity badge. Who can confirm whether you two are impostors?"
Linley and Bebe were taken aback.
They could fake it?
Thinking it over, it made sense. If you managed to kill an ordinary soldier, you could first unbind your own identity badge, then perform a blood-bond on the enemy's identity badge, and you'd be disguised. When the war ended, you could just switch back to your own badge. Linley and Bebe hadn't thought of that yet.
"Even if you're not impostors, people on the same side might still kill each other!" the Death God puppet said, then left.
Linley and Bebe didn't stop the puppet.
"Boss, I think I understand now why that commander in the military camp was so wary of us." Bebe said. "Just like that guy just now, worried we'd attack him." Bebe also realized that the other party wasn't afraid of the two of them; they just couldn't be bothered to fight someone from the same camp.
Even if they succeeded in killing, there was no merit.
If they failed, they'd die. Of course, the gray-robed man would leave.
"He was worried we'd kill him?" Linley said helplessly. "But killing him wouldn't give us any merit. Oh, no!" A flash of insight struck Linley. He finally understood why even people on the same side might kill each other.
"Huh?" Bebe looked at Linley in confusion.
"People on the same side might also kill each other." Linley sighed.
"How is that possible?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
"Simple. If two people who know each other well join opposite sides—one joins the Dark Divine Realm, the other the Radiant Divine Realm. For example, if you and I were on opposing sides, and I killed someone from my side to get a red badge, it would be useless to me. But I could give it to you! And if you killed someone from your side to get a gold badge, you could give it to me to use." Linley smiled bitterly.
Bebe understood now.
Many of the lords and mansion masters at the peak of the Highgod level were friends with each other. For example, Beirut might have friends of the same level in the Celestial Realm. If they joined different camps, they could easily pull this trick.
"So, even people on the same side can't be trusted unless you know them well." Linley said helplessly.
No wonder the black-robed, bald young man had sent Linley away without knowing him.
"It looks like we need to be careful too." Bebe pouted. "Even if we run into someone from the same side, we can't let our guard down."
"Yeah." Linley also felt the danger of the planar battlefield.
Apart from true friends, no one else could be trusted. The identity shown by the badge might not be real!
"That guy was pretty clever, using a Death God puppet as bait." Bebe chuckled. "Boss, we can do the same. No matter who it is, they won't sense any badge aura from the Death God puppet. They'll think it's an enemy and try to ambush it. Meanwhile, we can hide nearby and counter-ambush them."
Linley couldn't help but smile.
It was indeed a good idea. The planar battlefield spanned a million miles in radius. If you flew at top speed, it didn't seem that far. But in this kind of covert ambush warfare, such a vast area... with dozens or even hundreds of commanders scattered like drops of water in the ocean, hiding in some corner, it was rare to run into anyone.
Inside a cave, Linley and Bebe were resting. Each of them was controlling a Death God puppet not far away.
"We just arrived at the planar battlefield and ran into someone. Now it's been a month, and we haven't seen a single person." Bebe grumbled. "According to what you said, Boss, we have to be careful even when traveling. At this slow pace, when will we ever reach the Stellar River?"
"Don't rush."
Linley smiled calmly. He had plenty of patience. "Anywhere on this planar battlefield could be a battlefield between commanders. We don't need to run around recklessly. That's dangerous, and the chances of running into someone aren't high anyway. If we lie in wait here and there, we might have better odds."
"If everyone just waits, no one will run into anyone." Bebe retorted.
"So, we move forward a bit every month and change locations." Linley said calmly. "We have over eight hundred years! Plenty of time!"
On the planar battlefield, what mattered was patience. If someone got anxious and revealed their position even slightly, they might be targeted by another commander. Once targeted, it was dangerous. Linley knew his own strength well... If he ran into a commander skilled in soul attacks, he'd be in trouble. And soul attacks... most commanders were good at them!!
"If you can't stand waiting, just train." Linley smiled.
"I know." Bebe pouted.
Linley kept his true body alert while his divine clone trained.
Every commander was shrewd. Many of them had entered the planar battlefield more than once. Each had their own strategy.
Linley's waiting strategy yielded nothing in the first three months. He did encounter one person, but that person was from their own camp. Linley and Bebe didn't attack.
"Time to move. This place probably doesn't have any enemy commanders passing through."
"Boss, you should have decided that earlier. I think we should head toward the Stellar River. I bet there are more enemy commanders over there!"
After enduring three months, Linley finally decided to leave the cave. That day, Linley and Bebe quietly advanced toward the Stellar River.
Inside the belly of a low mountain, there was a spacious hidden chamber.
A purple-robed man with black hair sat cross-legged in the chamber, with three others sitting cross-legged beside him. Suddenly, a figure quietly climbed up from an underground staircase and bowed: "Master, our people have spotted someone from the Dark Divine Realm outside. One looks like a young man, the other like a youth. They're not in the map you gave us."
"Oh, strangers?" The purple-robed man opened his eyes, a flash of purple light passing through them.
"Yes, Master." The figure replied respectfully.
"Good. Time to go hunting." The purple-robed man's figure flickered and vanished from the chamber.
On the planar battlefield, Linley wanted to ambush others, and others wanted to ambush him. It all came down to who had better detection skills, better concealment, and better strategy. Linley and Bebe were first-timers on the planar battlefield, lacking experience in such skirmishes. Ambushing others was truly difficult for them.
And now...
They had been spotted!
"Boss, where should we set up an ambush? How about we go straight to the edge of the Stellar River? Right there... Hmph, if someone comes, we'll fight them." Bebe transmitted, his eyes showing no worry, only excitement.
"Ambushing by the Stellar River would just make us targets."
Linley's brow suddenly furrowed.
"What's wrong?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
"Whoosh!"
Linley suddenly turned his head. A hazy, transparent white arrow was already upon him. Linley's first reaction was to let out a "hum" as a layer of earthy yellow light spread from his body, instantly covering nearly a thousand meters around him. It was Linley's ultimate move—the Blackstone Space!
The gravitational pull was directed toward Linley!
"Pfft!" The transparent white arrow pierced into his body.
It was too fast. Linley couldn't dodge.
"Bebe, kill the attacker!" Linley only had time to transmit telepathically before focusing entirely on dealing with the soul attack.
"Boom!"
The transparent white arrow slammed into Linley's soul with unstoppable force, crashing against a transparent membrane. It exploded into white specks of light. These specks immediately found a weak spot in the defense and swarmed toward it.
"Sizzle..." Linley's soul force, tinged with green light, turned into invisible sword ripples, repeatedly striking at the white specks.
"Who is this? Rescind? No, the appearance doesn't match. But this gravitational force is so strong. Lucky I stayed far away." The purple-robed figure had originally been hiding a few hundred meters away when he launched the ambush. If he'd been any closer, Linley and Bebe would have noticed him.
Linley's Blackstone Space covered a large area.
But the purple-robed man was fast enough. Resisting the gravitational pull, he managed to escape the Blackstone Space's range. However, during that brief escape, Bebe had closed the distance to just two or three hundred meters.
"Yowl!"
Angry, Bebe activated his innate divine ability again.
"Huh?" The purple-robed man, keeping an eye on his surroundings, was startled when he saw the massive phantom of the Soul Devouring Rat. "That was Rescind's move earlier, and now this one is Beirut's!" A burst of white light erupted from the purple-robed man's body—it was Sovereign power!
His speed instantly shot to the limit.
"Whoosh!" The strange waves of the innate divine ability spread rapidly outward!
"Dammit, he got away!" Bebe said, frustrated.
The innate divine ability relied on soul force to activate and had a propagation process with a distance limit. Bebe had been two or three hundred meters away from the target, and in that critical moment, the other party had burned a drop of Sovereign power to accelerate and escape, creating enough distance.
"What's going on? Two unknown kids—one with Rescind's move, the other with Beirut's move. What terrible luck. I almost got taken down today, Uvawa. Got nothing and lost a drop of Sovereign power. Damn it!" The purple-robed man was equally frustrated. "Oh no, the Sovereign power dissipating... it's bound to attract other commanders. Bad luck, bad luck!"
PS: Three chapters done! Eleven chapters in three days, successfully completed. Brothers, this is the final stretch!