Chapter 11: The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord
The black sword-shaped metallic lifeform traveled through the high skies of Hell.
Inside the metallic lifeform, Linley and the other five were seated around a table.
"Linley, Dina and I being together again is all thanks to your help. Thank you." Olivier raised his wine glass and downed it in one gulp.
"Haha..." Bebe beside him burst into laughter. "Olivier, on our way to the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture, I never once saw you laugh genuinely. Even when you did laugh, it seemed forced. But look now... your eyes are squinting from smiling." Bebe deliberately teased him.
Yet Olivier, upon hearing this, turned his head with a smile to glance at Dina beside him. The couple exchanged a look, sweet and affectionate.
Seeing this, Linley couldn't help but smile as well, but suddenly his brow furrowed.
"How annoying!" Bebe muttered discontentedly as well.
Olivier, in a good mood, laughed and said, "Don't mind it. This metallic lifeform is flying through the sky, and Hell is filled with countless bandits and robbers. It's perfectly normal for them to probe with their divine sense. Though it's irritating, there's nothing we can do about it. Unless we plan to punish each and every one of them?"
Just now, a divine sense had swept over the metallic lifeform.
Hell was teeming with bandits. Though such incidents happened frequently, every time someone probed, it still left an unpleasant feeling.
"Hmph, those bandits only dare to probe. As long as they find out we're Highgods, they won't dare to provoke us." Bebe said disdainfully.
"Olivier," Linley spoke up. "How much farther is it to the place you mentioned?" Their current trip was first to go to where Olivier's eldest son, Rhea, had died. With a son dead, Dina had never visited the place. How could she find peace without going at least once?
Olivier sighed and said, "Soon. At the speed you're controlling this metallic lifeform, Linley, we should arrive in about five or six days. Linley... when we're almost there, you'll need to slow down. I'll have to look carefully to confirm the location. After all, that place is in a mountain hollow."
"Don't worry. We were in a hurry to get to the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture before, but there's no rush going back now." Linley said with a faint smile.
Originally, he had planned to go to the Divine Light Plane. However, after receiving a message sent by Beirut's people, Linley temporarily gave up on that idea.
Within the vast, boundless mountain range, two figures stood atop a peak.
"A black sword-shaped metallic lifeform, five people inside, one of them a Saint. That's right, it's the one that just passed by." One of them, a man with short golden hair, looked into the distance in the direction the metallic lifeform had gone. The bald young man beside him laughed and said, "This matches the intelligence sent by the forward scouts. However, the flight speed of this metallic lifeform is quite impressive. They were detected tens of millions of miles away, and in just over two days, they've covered an average of over ten million miles per day."
This speed shocked them as well.
After all, a typical metallic lifeform covering a million miles a day was already considered good.
What they didn't know was... covering over ten million miles a day was achieved without Linley going all out. Moreover, Linley's metallic lifeform was just an ordinary one, not a high-grade model.
"To achieve such speed, the metallic lifeform must be extremely high-grade, and the person controlling it must also be extremely powerful." The intelligence personnel made such speculations.
As soon as Linley's movements were observed, the information was immediately relayed to headquarters.
Headquarters then transmitted it to all branches.
Linley and his group's movements were under constant surveillance.
An arc-shaped black metallic lifeform hovered above the mountain range.
Inside the metallic lifeform.
The black-haired Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord stood at the front, gazing into the distance through the transparent metal. Beside him stood three people respectfully, including the white-browed man.
"Hmm? According to your deductions, wasn't this group supposed to pass through here?" The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord said coldly.
Among the three behind him, the silver-haired old man bowed and said, "Prefecture Lord, based on the route map of this group's journey, they were indeed supposed to pass through here. Moreover, not long ago, intelligence personnel sent word that the metallic lifeform was heading in this direction."
"But I didn't see them." The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord turned to glance at him.
The silver-haired old man couldn't help but tremble, quickly bowing respectfully and saying, "Prefecture Lord, please rest assured. Even if they turned and took another route, with our vast network of intelligence personnel, we will certainly find them."
"Prefecture Lord." At that moment, the white-browed man suddenly spoke.
The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord glanced at him, and the white-browed man quickly bowed and said, "Prefecture Lord, I've thought of something."
"Speak!" The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord said indifferently.
"Prefecture Lord... back then, Young Master Bonin once arranged for people to pursue and kill that Olivier and his two children. At that time, the warriors sent intercepted Olivier about several hundred thousand miles from here. In that battle, all the warriors died. However, they also killed one of Olivier's children. Now that Dina and Olivier have reunited, and with her son dead, Dina has never visited the place. I wonder... would she go to see it?" The white-browed man said.
In fact, back when Linley, Olivier, and the others killed Bonin, Dina had mentioned to Olivier about going to the place where her son died.
Although the white-browed man and the other guards were some distance from Dina, they could faintly hear it.
But the white-browed man also understood... if he had provided this information to the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord from the start, and they went to wait at that place, but Linley's group changed their plans for some reason, and the Prefecture Lord didn't find them, he might kill him in a fit of rage!
By saying it now, he could instead claim credit!
For the sake of his own life, he had no choice but to choose this approach.
"Oh?" The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord found this reasonable. A mother would naturally want to visit the place where her son died. This was very much in line with common sense.
"Very good." The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord nodded slightly at the white-browed man. "We'll go now to the place where Dina's son died."
"I'll guide the way." The white-browed man said respectfully.
"Hmm."
The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord was very satisfied with the white-browed man's cleverness. Immediately, the arc-shaped metallic lifeform, like a giant wind blade, streaked across the sky, flying toward the place where Olivier had fought fiercely with the enemies back then.
This nameless mountain range was vast and stretched endlessly.
In fact, any random mountain range in Hell was mostly larger than the Wushan Mountain Range of the Yulan Continent. There were also far more powerful experts. Of course, in the eyes of Linley, Olivier, and the others, so-called Demigods and Midgods were indeed insignificant.
In a certain mountain hollow.
Beside a bend of black lake water, a grave carved from a huge boulder stood.
Olivier, Dina, and their son, Daya, were in front of the grave, while Linley and Bebe stood to the side.
"Rhea, my child..." Dina couldn't help but kneel down, tears streaming down her face. The cold, silent Daya was also crying now. The death of his elder brother was clearly deeply etched in Daya's memory.
Linley and Bebe exchanged a glance and could only remain silent.
From the reactions of this family of three, Linley could tell that their family relationship was clearly very good, and Dina truly loved Olivier and the children. "Perhaps Dina wasn't suited for someone like Bonin, but instead liked a warm home like this." Linley sighed inwardly.
Olivier, Dina, and Bonin—the three of them were indeed a tragedy.
And even after his strongest divine clone died, Bonin had sworn to destroy Dina.
"With Olivier's abilities, there's no need for me to worry."
Linley couldn't help but walk over to the lake. Bebe followed, frowning as he transmitted, "Boss, watching Olivier and them grieve makes me feel oppressed too."
"Let's just wait here for a while." Linley transmitted back.
After a long time.
"Linley, we're done." Olivier brought his wife and son over. "Sorry for making you wait so long. Let's head back to the Indigo Prefecture."
"Hmm." Linley nodded.
Then Linley frowned and looked into the distance. He saw an arc-shaped metallic lifeform, similar to a giant wind blade, flying at extreme speed. It even flew close to the mountain range, heading straight into the mountain hollow. The rapid flight stirred up violent air currents, causing leaves and branches from many trees in the hollow to fly about wildly.
"Who is it?" Bebe frowned.
"Looking for us?" Linley thought to himself.
Having flown directly into the mountain hollow, it was clearly targeting their group.
At the same time, Linley willed it, and his divine sense spread out, directly probing the interior of the arc-shaped metallic lifeform. "Oh, four Highgods! That black-haired, cold old man... should be the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord, Morde." Linley had obtained information on many experts across various planes from Beirut.
Among them was information on Morde.
"Is this Morde here to avenge his son?" Linley sighed inwardly, lamenting Morde's lack of foresight. The strength Linley had displayed at Daishi Castle, and the power he showed when dealing with Bonin, though not his full strength, was still not something an ordinary Prefecture Lord could achieve.
Morde should have been able to deduce Linley's baseline strength, so how could he still dare to come?
Was Morde very strong?
Based on what Linley knew, although Morde was a divine emissary under the Bloodpeak Sovereign and possessed a Sovereign artifact, in terms of strength, he was far inferior to people like Reisgem and Hermes.
"Linley, what's going on?" Olivier walked over, looking worried.
"It's the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord, Morde." Linley said in a low voice. "No need to worry."
"Him?" Dina, who heard this, was startled, but recalling Linley's strength, she felt reassured.
The massive metallic lifeform hovering about ten meters above instantly dissipated, revealing four figures suspended in mid-air. The leader was a man with long black hair, a cold and resolute face, and eyes sharp as knives. Even standing still, he gave off the feeling of a low-growling beast, ready to attack at any moment. On his right arm was a bracer, inlaid with nine green beads.
"Hmm? Wearing a bracer?" Linley rarely saw people wearing bracers. After all, in battles, experts at most wore armor; bracers were useless. Yet, a very small number of people still wore them... some due to family traditions or customs from their childhood region. Others simply liked them. In any case, Linley was slightly surprised but then paid it no mind.
The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord, Morde, swept his cold gaze over Linley's group, like a lion staring at five lambs. The white-browed man behind Morde quickly bowed and said, "Prefecture Lord, among those five, the one with black and white hair is Olivier. He killed Young Master Bonin. The strongest among them is that brown-haired man. It was he who restrained Young Master, giving Olivier the chance to kill him. We do not know his name."
The Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord, Morde, glanced at Olivier, then fixed his gaze on Linley.
"Do you know that Bonin was my son?" Morde said in a low voice.
"I know." Linley said calmly.
Morde's aura was imposing, but before Linley, it was like a small dog baring its teeth at a giant.
"Hey, you're the Heavenly Mountain Prefecture Lord, Morde?" Bebe laughed. "The small one gets beaten, and the old one comes out! My boss and I are about to head back now. If you have nothing to do, get out of the way. If you want to avenge your son, stop wasting words and make your move. We'll finish you off and be on our way. We're in a hurry!"
"How dare you!" Morde valued Linley but didn't take Bebe seriously. Bebe's words immediately angered him.
"Boom!"
The air suddenly exploded. Morde's figure shot toward Bebe like lightning. His right hand formed a claw, tearing through the air, easily ripping space itself.
"Swoosh, swoosh!" The claw howled as it struck.
Linley frowned. Instantly, a blurry figure appeared before Morde, and with a "Bang!", Morde's head was viciously kicked aside. Morde's entire body was sent flying backward like a meteor, crashing heavily into the mountain wall dozens of meters away.
A thunderous impact echoed. The mountain wall cracked like a spiderweb, with a human-shaped hole at its center.