Chapter 48: Linley’s Death
Magnus. As a Paragon, his divine sense had an extremely wide range, far surpassing that of ordinary commanders. However, in terms of distance, it still couldn’t compare to using Sovereign power! Especially for a Paragon using Sovereign power—the search range would reach an astonishing level.
“So that’s where you are!” Magnus, mid-flight, revealed a faint smile on his face.
“Whoosh!” Magnus dove straight into the ground.
From afar, Bebe witnessed this scene. His fists clenched tightly, his eyes reddened, and he knelt helplessly on the barren ground, muttering in a low voice, “Boss, boss! You have to live! You once said you wanted to reach the pinnacle of training. You can’t die like this.”
Rescind, freed from his restraints, noticed that Reihong was in mortal danger. “Reihong!” He let out a furious roar. Rescind’s body instantly arched like a bow, and he gripped a purple longspear, hurling it with all his might.
“Swish!” Tearing through the air, a black-glowing purple phantom shot toward Chegwuin.
“Hmm?” Chegwuin had no choice but to abandon his final blow against Reihong and hurriedly block the spear.
“Clang!”
Chegwuin’s body recoiled violently, but he emerged unscathed.
“You won’t kill Reihong,” Rescind said as he rushed over, glaring at Chegwuin. Chegwuin, however, leisurely smiled back at Rescind. “Rescind, you want to protect this Reihong? Sure, if you protect him, I really can’t kill him. But it’s useless. The person Mr. Magnus wants to kill, you can’t protect.”
Rescind knew all too well that once Magnus returned, Reihong was finished.
“Reihong, flee now,” Rescind transmitted mentally. “Run as far as you can, preferably across the Stellar River to the other side of the planar battlefield.”
“Alright.” Reihong didn’t waste words. He immediately shrank his body and sped toward the Stellar River.
“Hmm?” Chegwuin moved to intercept, but Rescind blocked his path.
“Hmph, he won’t escape,” Chegwuin said with a faint smile. Uman also arrived at Chegwuin’s side. The two of them, working together, had no fear of Rescind or Bebe.
Deep within the planar battlefield.
Linley was fleeing at top speed.
“I’ve run this far—he probably can’t catch up, right? But being tracked by Sovereign power is troublesome,” Linley thought to himself. “Still, why are there two streams of Sovereign power probing me?” Linley was puzzled. While using Sovereign power himself, he could naturally detect others’ divine sense probing.
“Linley, you can’t escape.” A voice echoed in Linley’s mind.
Linley’s expression changed. “Magnus!”
Using Sovereign power, Linley also detected Magnus’s probing.
“One stream of Sovereign power is Magnus. What about the other?” Linley wondered inwardly.
But at that moment, another voice rang in Linley’s mind: “Turn left immediately, flee straight in that direction.” Linley was startled—the voice was Azure Dragon’s! Clearly, Azure Dragon was also using Sovereign power to spread his divine sense and send a mental transmission. Hearing Azure Dragon’s voice, Linley’s hope surged.
“Don’t let your guard down. That Paragon is closer to you than I am. I’m much farther away. Turn left now!” Azure Dragon urged anxiously.
Linley didn’t hesitate. He immediately veered left and sped through the earth.
Meanwhile, Azure Dragon and Magnus were conversing through their Sovereign power-infused divine senses.
“Stop, Magnus. Spare Linley,” Azure Dragon said.
“Impossible!” Magnus didn’t hesitate for a moment, still pursuing Linley at top speed. His speed far exceeded Linley’s. Azure Dragon could clearly sense the distance between Magnus and Linley shrinking rapidly, which filled him with anxiety. He couldn’t make it in time himself.
“No one can stop the person I want to kill,” Magnus said, showing no respect for Azure Dragon.
A Paragon feared no other Paragon. Though both were powerful, neither could easily overcome the other. As for Sovereigns, unless necessary, they rarely involved themselves in disputes among Highgods.
Linley made a decision. He turned his Sovereign power transparent, spreading it like soul force. The Sovereign power covered a vast area, easily detecting Magnus. “Not good—he’s only three miles away now. Where’s Azure Dragon?” The spread covered fifty miles, but he couldn’t sense Azure Dragon.
Linley grew desperate.
Though Linley was prepared to die, he wouldn’t give up easily.
“Two miles.” Linley clearly felt the other party closing in at an alarming speed. “One mile!”
Five hundred meters. At Magnus’s speed, even within the ‘Blackstone Space,’ he could catch up in no time. Linley gritted his teeth. “No choice—I have to do this!” Azure Dragon was clearly too far away, still en route. Linley steeled himself and plunged downward.
“Hmm? Seeking death?” Magnus smiled coldly, his speed undiminished.
Deep within the planar battlefield, the deeper one went, the more dangerous it became. At a certain depth, spatial rifts appeared. Even a Paragon would be wary in such places—being swept into the ‘spatial turbulence’ by a sudden rift and lost within was a terrifying prospect.
Linley was taking a desperate gamble to survive!
“Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters…” Linley clearly sensed that even within the Blackstone Space, Magnus was closing in rapidly.
“Whoosh!” Linley himself charged deeper into the earth.
“Whoosh!” Suddenly, a spatial rift slashed past just a few meters away, devouring a patch of soil and rock.
“I’ve reached it.” Linley knew he’d hit the boundary. His Sovereign power-infused divine sense also revealed that a hundred meters below, spatial rifts were far more numerous.
“Go on, go deeper if you dare,” a mocking voice sounded.
Linley’s Sovereign power divine sense clearly detected Magnus just twenty meters above him. Suddenly, Linley felt a surge of joy: “Azure Dragon!” Azure Dragon was now less than ten miles away. Earlier, Linley fleeing and Magnus chasing had been in the same direction, costing Magnus extra time. But Linley and Azure Dragon had been flying toward each other, making it faster.
“Fast indeed.” Magnus also noticed Azure Dragon’s terrifying speed. “Seems even faster than me.” Magnus realized that this newcomer’s strength was astonishing.
“But it’s too late.”
Magnus cast a cold glance at Linley below.
“Linley, it seems a suspected Paragon has come to save you. But it’s too late. As a sign of respect for him, I’ll let you die by my strongest strike.” Magnus transmitted mentally. At the same time, a transparent orb appeared in his hand. Inside this fist-sized orb, a lotus flower bloomed.
Linley dared not go deeper. Instead, he shot sideways at top speed, trying to put distance between himself and Magnus.
“Stop!” Azure Dragon shouted.
“Hmph,” Magnus snorted coldly.
“Swish!”
The transparent orb shot out like lightning, moving ten or a hundred times faster than Magnus’s flight. Linley had barely moved half a meter when the orb, at a speed he couldn’t evade, plunged directly into his body. The transparent orb rushed straight into his mind.
“Break!” Linley, using Sovereign power, frantically attacked the transparent orb.
The orb suddenly expanded, enveloping Linley’s damaged defensive Sovereign artifact, then tore through the patch at the breach with irresistible force. The lotus flower surged into Linley’s soul sea.
It was like a meteor crashing into a pond.
Linley’s soul force couldn’t stop it.
The transparent lotus spun rapidly, erupting with blinding light like a sun, illuminating Linley’s soul sea. It shot beams toward Linley’s soul and the souls of his three divine clones. Linley desperately directed Sovereign power to counter it, but it was like an egg striking a rock—he couldn’t budge it at all.
The spinning transparent lotus emitted countless rays of light, extending to the four souls within Linley’s body.
“Father, Yale, George… and Delia, your brother will come back too. I didn’t let you down!” With this final thought, Linley’s lips curled slightly into a faint smile. Then, his consciousness was completely extinguished.
A Paragon—like the wind-type Paragon ‘Beyer’—could leave Linley dazed and helpless with a soul attack. Now, the fate-type Paragon ‘Magnus’ had struck, using his ultimate technique empowered by fate-type Sovereign power. If Linley could withstand that, the title of Paragon would be meaningless.
“Trying to flee into the depths and cheat death?” Magnus looked at Linley’s body lying in the soil, utterly lifeless, with Sovereign power still seeping from its surface. “That trick works against material attackers, but against soul attackers, it’s useless.”
Soul attacks could be launched from a distance.
Even deep within the planar battlefield, there was no escape!
“Hmm?” Magnus suddenly turned to look not far away.
“Sizzle~” The surrounding soil instantly burned to nothing. Linley’s body floated up, and a white-robed figure descended from above, arriving at Linley’s side. He reached out and supported Linley’s body.
“Hmm?” Azure Dragon frowned slightly.
“Has another Paragon appeared in this world?” Magnus raised an eyebrow, looking at Azure Dragon.
Azure Dragon snorted coldly, shooting upward. All soil and rock in his path were incinerated into nothing. “Interesting,” Magnus said, also soaring into the sky.
Rescind and Bebe, concerned about Linley, rushed over at top speed. Uman and Chegwuin also came. All four were using Sovereign power and naturally detected Azure Dragon’s presence.
“Azure Dragon, Azure Dragon,” Bebe murmured, clinging to a shred of hope.
But when Linley was struck, Bebe clearly felt Linley’s soul rapidly weaken. A Highgod’s soul was powerful—in Bebe’s perception, it was as dazzling as the sun. Yet Linley’s soul aura decayed sharply until…
It was undetectable!
Bebe’s tears silently streamed down his face.
“Ahhh~” Bebe tried to scream in agony, but his voice failed him.
Rescind, seeing this, knew something was wrong. His Sovereign power divine sense also detected that Linley’s body no longer emitted any aura.
“Dead?” Rescind was stunned. “No, impossible!”
Soon, Rescind and Bebe saw the white-robed figure in the distance. Linley’s body lay on the ground, utterly lifeless, all Sovereign power dissipated. Magnus stood nearby, indifferent.
“Magnus!” Bebe’s eyes were bloodshot, tears flowing. He roared, “Remember this—I will kill you! I swear it!!!”
“I’ll be waiting,” Magnus said with a faint smile.
Kill a Paragon? If a Paragon chose to flee, even a Sovereign couldn’t be certain of success. Killing a Paragon was no easy feat.
“Let’s go,” Magnus said calmly.
Uman and Chegwuin nodded slightly. Magnus was about to leave with them when he suddenly turned to Azure Dragon. “What’s your name?”
“You’re not worthy of knowing,” Azure Dragon said coldly.
Magnus raised an eyebrow, snorted, and turned to leave with Uman and Chegwuin.
On the barren ground, Linley lay motionless, devoid of any aura. Azure Dragon stood beside him. Rescind and Bebe flew over. Rescind said in disbelief, “Impossible! He can’t just die like this! He has my mother’s soul stone—how could he die?”
As Bebe approached Linley, he suddenly sensed something: “Hmm? The boss’s soul?”
Drawing closer, Bebe faintly detected Linley’s soul’s existence. But its aura was so weak, barely a flicker. Even Bebe, with their soul bond, had to be right next to him to barely sense it.
“The boss isn’t dead!” Bebe exclaimed in joy.
“I’ve checked,” Azure Dragon said with a sigh, shaking his head. “Linley hasn’t truly died yet. But his soul is like a flame in a cold wind, on the verge of being snuffed out at any moment. It’s only the ‘soul stone’ constantly consuming energy to sustain his last thread of life that’s kept him alive. Otherwise, he’d have died long ago.”