Chapter 51: Transformation, Breaking the Cocoon to Become a Butterfly!
At this moment, Linley’s main body and his three divine clones simultaneously regained consciousness. Linley’s first thought was: “What happened to me? I’m not dead?” The long, thirty-four years without consciousness felt, to Linley’s main body and three divine clones, like only a single second had passed.
But in the next instant, Linley communicated with his fire-type divine clone. He also learned that he had actually been unconscious for a full thirty-four years.
“Where is this?” Linley looked around and sat up directly.
As he sat up, Linley finally sensed the changes in himself!
“Hmm? What’s going on?” Linley could clearly feel the spatial fluctuations around him. He could even perceive the four people outside in the hall—Qinghuo, Lei Hong, Reisgem, and Bebe—with absolute clarity. This feeling of absolute control gave Linley a sense of being able to dictate the fate of others.
Like an emperor, with absolute dominion.
“Linley!”
“Boss!”
A chorus of joyful shouts rang out. The commotion from Linley sitting up was also sensed by the four outside. They all entered the stone room almost simultaneously. Linley looked at the four before him. Reisgem, Lei Hong, and Qinghuo were filled with joy and relief, while Bebe was excited, even with tears in his eyes.
“Boss.” Bebe directly gave Linley a hug.
“Haha, Bebe, don’t cry, you’re like a child.” Linley got up, stepped down from the stone bed, and said with a chuckle.
Bebe wiped away his tears and laughed, then rubbed his nose and said with a snort, “Boss, it’s all your fault. You were unconscious for a full thirty-four years. Tell me, isn’t that scary?”
“How did I end up unconscious for thirty-four years?” Linley was very puzzled.
Qinghuo beside him smiled and said, “Linley, thirty-four years ago, you were hit by Magnus’s full-force attack. Fortunately, the Soul Stone helped save your life. But who would have thought that during your coma, your soul would begin to mutate. The energy of the Soul Stone was quickly depleted. We were all worried you wouldn’t make it, but you pulled through.”
“Soul mutation!” Linley was startled. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Why don’t you check and see how things are?” Qinghuo urged with a smile. “Some changes can’t be seen from the outside. Only you can detect them.”
“Yeah, Boss, take a look and see what your soul is like now.” Bebe said expectantly. “You’re the first person with four divine clones to undergo a soul mutation.”
“Four divine clones, soul mutation… what will happen?” Reisgem looked at Linley with burning curiosity.
“I have four divine clones, and I’ve undergone a soul mutation?”
Linley himself couldn’t believe it, but he still closed his eyes and carefully sensed his current soul!
In the soul ocean.
The vast soul ocean shimmered with a dreamy, rainbow-colored halo. The soul force surged like seawater, “crashing and billowing.” This soul force appeared transparent and dreamlike, like crystal. The most dazzling thing was still the sword-shaped soul!
The sword-shaped soul hovered above the ocean.
The current sword-shaped soul had become transparent. Only a layer of gray light covered its surface, making it look relatively ordinary, not as dazzling as the previous rainbow-colored sword-shaped soul.
“What a powerful and special feeling.” Linley muttered in his heart.
Others, like Qinghuo, even if they deeply probed Linley’s soul, wouldn’t discover its peculiarity. Only Linley himself could feel it.
“That feeling of control… it’s very unique.” Linley thought to himself.
Then, Linley stopped pondering and carefully observed other aspects.
“Ah, the soul-protecting divine artifact!” Linley was shocked to discover that the gap in the soul-protecting divine artifact was repairing itself at an astonishing speed. It was millions of times faster than when he was a Highgod. Moreover, during the repair process, the soul-protecting divine artifact was truly being restored!
In the past, it was like adding a patch. It wasn’t a real repair.
But now, the gap in the soul-protecting divine artifact was slowly shrinking.
The day the gap disappeared would be the day the soul-protecting divine artifact was completely restored.
“This… how is this possible?” Linley couldn’t believe it.
Repairing a soul-protecting divine artifact was related to the soul and soul force. Linley could sense that his soul had become very powerful, but the fact that it could make the soul-protecting divine artifact repair at such a shocking speed was still unbelievable: “At this rate, it should be fully repaired within a few years.”
Linley also noticed that the souls of his other three clones had also mutated.
“Unfortunately, the soul of my fire-type divine clone didn’t mutate along with them. But it’s the same. Later, when the fire-type divine clone merges into the main body and stays with these four souls, their energies will interact, and it will slowly change as well.” Linley understood. It was like the main body’s soul.
Actually, the main body’s soul was just the soul of the Saint-level main body.
But because the souls of the other clones were with it, and as the souls of the other divine clones grew, since they originated from the same source, the several souls could complement each other. Naturally, the main body’s soul became this strong as well. After all, the five souls were originally one.
“Soul mutation? Doesn’t that mean I can fuse four types of divine power?” Linley couldn’t help but try. First, he fused the three types of Highgod power: earth, water, and wind.
Inside Linley’s body, the three streams of divine power surged like dragons. When they touched, it was like they were family. There was no resistance at all. Under Linley’s control, the three streams of Highgod power directly converged and fused together. After fusing, the color completely changed.
Previously, they were earth-yellow, light cyan, and emerald green. Now, after fusing, they became a dark green, almost black.
The dark green divine power surged within Linley’s body.
“So strong.” Linley’s heart began to race with excitement.
At the same moment, Linley tried to fuse a stream of fire-type Demigod power. When this fire-type power touched the powerful dark green divine power, it also fused!
“Hmm? The power decreased instead?” Linley could feel that after the dark green divine power fused with the fire-type Demigod power, it was as if it had been internally affected, and its power weakened a bit. “Is it because the fire aspect hasn’t reached the Highgod level?” Linley guessed.
It wasn’t a simple matter of fusing more being better.
It was like an army. If an elite legion was mixed with weaker soldiers, it would actually reduce the army’s overall strength.
“Right. Back then, Olivier, when he reached the Demigod level, also said that he had to wait until both of his divine clones reached the Demigod level before his strength could greatly increase.” Linley completely understood.
Fusion also required balance.
The three types of divine power—earth, water, and wind—were all at the Highgod level. The fire-type divine power was only at the Demigod level, which was still too weak.
“Linley! Linley!” Reisgem’s voice came, interrupting Linley’s thoughts. “Hey, Linley, what’s going on? Don’t just stand there like an idiot. Tell us about it.”
“Let’s talk in the hall.” Linley said with a smile.
So Linley and the other five went to the hall and sat down around the long table.
“Linley, your soul mutation was successful, right?” Qinghuo said with a faint smile.
“En.” Linley nodded.
Qinghuo’s eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in admiration, “Legend has it that fusing two types of divine power increases power tenfold, fusing three types increases power a hundredfold! Fusing four types… no one knows. It’s estimated to increase power a thousandfold. Even using Sovereign power is only a few hundred times stronger than normal Highgod power.”
“Linley, what about you? You fused four types of divine power. How powerful is it? Is it stronger than Sovereign power?” Reisgem asked expectantly.
Sovereign power was strong, but it had its limits. It was a few hundred times stronger than normal Highgod power.
“I can feel it,” Linley said with a smile. “Fusing three types of divine power indeed increases power a hundredfold. I feel it’s comparable to when I use Destruction Sovereign power!” Linley was proficient in the Laws of the Earth. Using Destruction Sovereign power wasn’t as efficient, only amplifying his power about a hundredfold, which was equivalent to fusing three types of divine power.
Qinghuo nodded slightly. Everything was as he had predicted.
“What about four types?” Reisgem pressed.
“I don’t know either.” Linley said with a smile.
“How can you not know?” Reisgem glared. Bebe beside him laughed: “Reisgem, my boss’s fire-type divine clone is only a Demigod. Even if Demigod power and Highgod power can fuse, it probably won’t increase the power by much.”
Reisgem was stunned, then smiled sheepishly: “I forgot. Linley, you’ve only been cultivating for a little over two thousand years.”
Indeed, two thousand years. Having three divine clones was already terrifying enough. Of course, there were many geniuses in the Infernal Realm who cultivated faster than Linley. However… one thing was certain. There was definitely no other person who had undergone a soul mutation with four clones.
At least for now, Linley was unique.
“Impressive, truly impressive.” Qinghuo exclaimed in admiration. “Soul mutation is indeed terrifying. When your fire-type divine clone also reaches the Highgod level and you fuse all four types of divine power, its power will surpass Sovereign power! But rewards come with risks. This time, you were truly walking a razor’s edge.”
“It was indeed a narrow escape.” Bebe also nodded.
“Lord Reihom.” Linley suddenly frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Qinghuo asked, puzzled.
Linley shook his head and said, “I feel… a special sensation now! A feeling of control! A sense of dominion over matter, even over the surrounding space.” Linley raised his fist as he spoke. “I have a feeling that I could shatter space with a full-force punch.” As he said this, Linley threw a full-force punch.
Linley hadn’t undergone Dragonform, nor had he used Sovereign power. In terms of profound mysteries of the laws, he was far weaker than a Paragon.
“Puchi!”
With one punch, space trembled like the surface of a lake, then burst apart. A massive spatial rift nearly a meter in diameter appeared before him.
“This…”
Bebe was dumbfounded. Reisgem and Lei Hong were speechless. Qinghuo’s eyes lit up.
Previously, Linley had to undergo Dragonform, use Sovereign power, and even use a divine artifact weapon to tear a spatial rift. But compared to this… this single punch was far more powerful.
“Boss, your punch… it’s almost as strong as that Paragon Highgod, Baehr’s, palm strike.” Bebe exclaimed in amazement.
Back then, Baehr had casually struck with his palm, cleaving a massive spatial rift.
“Me? I don’t know either.” Linley was a bit dazed. “I just had that feeling of control, like I could shatter this space. But I didn’t expect to actually shatter it.”
“Linley!” A shout rang out.
Linley turned his head. The speaker was Qinghuo. At this moment, Qinghuo’s face was full of excited smiles: “Haha… Linley, that is a Will imbued with the Laws of Heaven and Earth! Since a Will contains the Laws of Heaven and Earth, it can naturally control heaven and earth. That is a special Might! A Might that only Paragons and Sovereigns possess! No matter what attack, once it is imbued with your Will, its power will be terrifyingly amplified.”
“Will? Might?” Linley was shocked.
“A Might that only Paragons and Sovereigns possess?” Bebe, Reisgem, and the others were stunned.
Linley savored this feeling of control. Indeed, he could sense the fluctuations of space and every movement around him.
He had never felt this before!
On the planar battlefield, Linley had only ever felt a sense of crisis. But now, he had a feeling of controlling the fate of others. It was a feeling of looking down from on high, of overlooking all living beings!
“I never thought, truly never thought,” Qinghuo said in disbelief. “In the past, soul mutations only strengthened the soul. Even among the few individuals across countless planes who had undergone a soul mutation with three clones, none had ever generated a Might! But no one ever imagined that a soul mutation with four divine clones would actually generate a Might!”
“Right. A soul mutation with four clones is far stronger than one with three clones! When the soul becomes that powerful, it is only fitting for the heavens to bestow a Might.” Qinghuo was very excited.
Then, he looked at Linley with a burning gaze: “Linley, come, come, attack me. Attack me and let me test it out. Let me see which is stronger—your unprecedented four-clone soul mutation Might, or a Paragon’s Might!”