Chapter 36: The Blood-Dripping Crown
In the Laws of the Earth, Ropp had also fused five types of profound mysteries.
Among the six profound mysteries of the Earth Laws, the only one he hadn't fused was 'Gravity Space.' The other five profound mysteries were all fused together, especially after 'Vitality,' 'Earth Travel,' 'Earth Pulse,' 'Strength,' and 'Earth Element' were combined. He then created his ultimate Earth Travel technique, while his soul power formed an unending cycle within his mind, with not a trace of aura leaking out.
His skills in concealment and escape had reached a limit.
But there were gains and losses. His attacking strike only fused four profound mysteries. As for the 'Earth Travel' aspect, it simply couldn't be integrated into that strike.
"Whoosh!" Ropp moved through the 'Blackstone Space' like a slippery fish, rapidly shifting positions.
Linley, however, dodged with ease, effortlessly blocking him.
"It's not certain who will die yet," Ropp growled inwardly. His battle blade silently sliced through space, heading straight for Linley's head. Just as Linley's 'Shadow' divine sword struck toward his blade—"Boom!" The energy in the battle blade suddenly surged.
"Bang!"
A blade, a sword!
Linley was jolted back slightly. "Haha, good!" Linley laughed and charged forward again. Unfortunately, in terms of weapons, Ropp's blade was slightly inferior to Linley's 'Shadow' divine sword.
"Relying on his weapon," Ropp also noticed Linley's extraordinary blade. Disgruntled, Ropp's gaze turned cold. Abruptly, he pressed his left index and middle fingers together, then flicked them outward. A semi-transparent sword finger shot toward Linley at incredible speed, directly entering his mind.
It was a soul attack!
"Haha... Ropp, you'd better keep that weak soul attack to yourself," Linley said, unconcerned. Practitioners of the Earth Laws were never particularly skilled in soul matters, and Ropp himself was only average in this area. How powerful could it be? Linley easily crushed it with his own soul power.
Ropp had only done it out of desperation.
"Is that so?" Ropp sneered, his attacks growing even more frenzied. Linley happily met them.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
The two figures of Linley and Ropp clashed repeatedly, but neither seemed to have the upper hand. In Linley's view, Ropp was among the weaker commanders: "He doesn't even have a Sovereign artifact. He can only rely on sneak attacks. Still, his concealment method is worth learning."
Linley guessed that Ropp's fused profound mysteries must include 'Earth Travel.'
And that strike—its power was completely restrained, only bursting forth at the last moment.
"That strike perfectly demonstrates the 'Vitality' profound mystery," Linley thought, sparring with Ropp to practice his swordsmanship. Ropp, however, was fighting with the intent to seize an opportunity to kill Linley and gain a chance to escape.
"Pfft!"
Linley thrust his sword.
Ropp twisted his battle blade, dodging Linley's strike, and slid it along the edge of Linley's sword toward his body.
"Oh? He's really risking it all," Linley thought. At the critical moment, a "Whoosh!" sound rang out. A green-gold blur appeared—Linley's dragon tail, carrying terrifying force, slammed heavily into the battle blade. In terms of toughness, Linley's dragon tail was no weaker than this high-level divine artifact.
The battle blade was knocked askew. "Pfft!" What was meant to slice Linley's head now struck his chest instead. Weakened by the tail's deflection, the blade barely tore through the dragon scales, drawing a faint trace of blood.
"Splash!"
Linley's 'Shadow' divine sword swept across Ropp's head, severing body from head.
Once the head was separated from the body, it was nearly a death sentence. Even if the soul remained, without control over the body to resist or attack, it was as good as surrendering.
"You're ruthless enough. But the result is your death," Linley said, looking at the flying head.
"If I had a Sovereign artifact, the outcome would be different," Ropp's head roared, knowing he was doomed.
"Swish!" A flash of Linley's 'Shadow' divine sword, and Ropp's voice cut off abruptly. A red line appeared on his forehead.
At that moment, Ropp's high-level divine artifact, space ring, and a golden badge fell to the ground.
"Different outcome with a Sovereign artifact?" Bebe flew over and sneered. "Anyone can say that. If my boss had three Sovereign artifacts—soul defense, material defense, and attack—who would he fear except a Paragon?"
Linley shook his head with a sigh.
This world was one of the survival of the fittest, where the strong ruled. Who had a Sovereign artifact? It depended on strength!
Only the strong were chosen as Sovereign's envoys and granted Sovereign artifacts. Only with enough military merit could one exchange for a Sovereign artifact. Everything came from one's own effort. Sovereign's children indeed had an advantage, but sometimes luck was also part of strength.
"Ropp's sneak attacks were good, but in real combat, he's at the bottom among commanders. It's normal that a Sovereign wouldn't choose him as an envoy," Linley said with a sigh. "So, even fusing five profound mysteries, there are differences."
The Earth Laws had six profound mysteries. Fusing five resulted in six different combinations. Different paths led to different development routes.
"This commander badge came easily," Linley said, taking the golden badge with joy. "Now I have three golden badges. I only need one more."
"Bebe, let's go."
Linley and Bebe quickly left the battlefield.
In the Plane Battlefield, anyone who entered had to be prepared to die. The strong survived, and the stronger lived.
Inside a mountain in the Plane Battlefield, Linley and Bebe carved out a cave and settled in temporarily. The cave was hundreds of meters deep within the mountain, making it difficult for commanders to extend their divine sense inside.
There were three exceptions:
1. Using Sovereign power to enhance divine sense.
2. Paragon high-level gods, whose divine sense had an extremely wide range.
3. Mutated high-level gods—soul mutation experts. Their most special trait was their 'soul,' which was far stronger than that of normal high-level gods. Of course, the degree of soul mutation varied. Those with two types of divine power who underwent soul mutation had a decent survival rate. Most soul mutation experts had two types of divine power, and Olivia was at this level. Those with three types of divine power who underwent soul mutation almost always died. In the entire Infernal Realm, only one person with three types of divine power had succeeded in mutation. Their souls were even stronger!
As for those with four types of divine power who underwent mutation, no one in countless planes over countless years had succeeded. No one knew what the result would be.
Inside the cave.
Linley held the battered crown, studying it closely. The crown had no luster. If thrown into a pile of trash, even gods passing by wouldn't notice it.
Bebe stared at it too. After a long while, he smacked his lips and said, "Boss, what's so special about this broken crown? I can't see anything. To me, it feels like an ordinary item from a material plane."
"It's different."
Linley shook his head. "But I can't tell what's special about it either."
Earlier, Linley had received a strange energy from the crown that healed his injuries. Combined with the fact that it had come from spatial turbulence, Linley naturally didn't think it was ordinary.
"I know it's not ordinary. Anything that can come through spatial turbulence is either a divine artifact or a Sovereign artifact," Bebe said, examining the crown. "And since it's shaped like a crown, I'd say it's a soul defense Sovereign artifact." Bebe reasoned.
"If it really is a soul defense Sovereign artifact, being this damaged means it's a broken one," Linley said with a smile.
If the owner of a Sovereign artifact were alive, the artifact wouldn't be damaged! Damage meant the soul defense Sovereign artifact had been breached, and its owner was dead!
"There's only one way now," Linley said, nodding slightly.
"Boss, try it quickly!" Bebe urged.
The only way was—blood recognition!
Linley extended his index finger. With a thought, a drop of blood seeped out from his skin and fell onto the crown.
"Huh?" Bebe widened his eyes.
"Huh?" Linley frowned.
The drop of blood rolled along the edge of the crown and then fell to the ground.
"Not absorbing?" Linley was puzzled.
"What's going on? Is this thing already owned?" Bebe frowned.
Linley thought for a moment and nodded. "There's one possibility. The owner of this crown might have fought in the Plane Battlefield and died, with the Sovereign artifact falling into spatial turbulence. But the owner might still have a clone outside, so blood recognition won't work."
"That makes sense! Ah, no! Boss," Bebe suddenly said. "This crown is damaged. Spatial turbulence can't damage a Sovereign artifact, can it? High-level gods can't damage Sovereign artifacts either, right?"
Linley was stunned and nodded slightly.
When high-level gods fought and died, their Sovereign artifacts were usually unharmed. High-level gods' power couldn't destroy Sovereign artifacts.
"Could the owner of this crown be a Sovereign?" Linley speculated. "Was this crown damaged in a battle between Sovereigns, like my Coiling Dragon ring?"
"If it was a Sovereign, then that Sovereign must have fallen," Bebe said. "But if a Sovereign fell, the Sovereign who killed them wouldn't let their clone go. They'd wipe out the roots. So this crown should be ownerless and should accept blood recognition."
Linley was also confused.
The Coiling Dragon ring had accepted his blood recognition, but this crown didn't.
But for now, everything was just speculation.
"Forget it," Linley said, shaking his head. "Bebe, if we can't figure it out, let's stop. Since it won't accept blood recognition, maybe... this crown isn't a Sovereign artifact at all."
"Then what else could survive spatial turbulence?" Bebe muttered.
Linley and Bebe couldn't understand. According to their knowledge, only Sovereign artifacts, divine artifacts, or divine sparks could survive spatial turbulence. Ordinary materials like ores couldn't be preserved in spatial turbulence.
Unable to figure out the crown's secret, Linley had to set it aside for now and put it into his space ring. Then, as planned, he immersed himself in cultivation. There were only three hundred years left until the end of this Plane War, and Linley wanted to break through before then.
"That Ropp's blade..."
Restrained to the extreme, yet so stunning when unleashed.
"Blackmose's fist..."
That unstoppable punch kept replaying in Linley's mind.
"The golden-robed man's mace..."
Linley also carefully analyzed the mace's attacks.
Over the years, he had encountered many Earth Laws practitioners, like the Redrock Lord or Berrely...
Each Earth Laws practitioner developed their own ultimate techniques, which belonged to them, not to Linley. But Linley wanted to discover the secrets within these techniques to help him break through his current bottleneck. And so, Linley immersed himself in research without pause.
Bebe lounged in the cave, half-closing his eyes and occasionally biting into a fruit. He was controlling a Death God puppet outside: "Three years, and I've only run into one person. And that guy wasn't easy to deal with. The weaker ones are all cowards. Hmph, I'm a mouse too."
Bebe suddenly glanced at Linley.
"Huh?" Bebe frowned.
Earth elements began gathering around Linley's body, gradually forming a yellow-brown sphere centered on him.
"What's wrong with the boss?" Bebe wondered.
"Whoosh!"
Strangely, the yellow-brown sphere suddenly contracted, collapsing from a three-meter diameter to a single point. This violent contraction caused spatial ripples, which spread out and turned the cave walls into dust, enlarging the cave significantly.
At that moment, Linley opened his eyes, a smile on his face.
"Boss? You... broke through?" Bebe guessed.
Linley looked at Bebe and nodded slightly.
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