Chapter 20: A Thousand Years, Astonishing Changes!
Back then, Bloodpeak Sovereign, within the Luyan City of Tianshan Prefecture, had killed Molde.
That huge commotion naturally drew the attention of Luyan City's lord and many high-level gods, but Bloodpeak Sovereign ordered the lord to ignore it. Moreover, Bloodpeak Sovereign had Molde's body destroyed and the traces erased. With a Sovereign's word... the Luyan City lord naturally dared not interfere further.
The matter was thus left unresolved.
Molde, back then, was worried about Linley's pursuit, so he had secretly hidden alone in Luyan City, renting a mansion. Molde died, but the Tianshan Prefecture soldiers didn't know; they still thought their prefect was alive and well. A large number of soldiers were stationed there.
The blood sun hung high in the sky. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, finally halting above the prefect's mansion, transforming into a human figure. This person stood in mid-air, as straight as a javelin. Though somewhat lean, his domineering aura radiated wantonly. His ink-black long hair drifted casually, reaching down to his hips.
On his back, he carried a battle-axe.
This person was none other than Luomiu, the strong expert Linley had met back in the Starcloud Sea. In those days, Luomiu already possessed terrifying strength close to the Asura level.
"This is the prefect's residence. Withdraw at once!" Immediately, a large number of soldiers flew into the air, and the leader shouted angrily at Luomiu.
Luomiu, actively releasing his aura while hovering above the prefect's mansion, was clearly provoking them.
Luomiu's gaze swept over the crowd below. He said coldly, "From today onward, I, Luomiu Polnoson, am the Tianshan Prefecture's prefect!" His voice, like thunder, echoed through the heavens and earth, heard clearly by the hundreds of thousands of stationed soldiers and even the tribal residents farther away.
"How dare you!" A gaunt old man shrouded in a black robe roared angrily, "Our Tianshan Prefecture's prefect is Lord Molde. If you want to be prefect, follow the rules: first become a Seven-Star Demon, then come challenge!"
The many soldiers below were also furious.
Becoming prefect just like that? Proclaiming himself prefect so arrogantly above the prefect's mansion? Too ridiculous.
"Rumble..."
Inky black, terrifying energy gathered high in the sky. The energy's aura made the soldiers below tremble in fear. In particular, some of the stronger ones, like the gaunt old man in the black robe, changed expression drastically: "So much Sovereign power..."
Immediately, the vast Sovereign power energy formed a giant face dozens of meters high.
"Whoosh---"
An overwhelming Sovereign's pressure radiated outward.
"Sovereign!" All the soldiers fell to the ground, kneeling and trembling.
"Sovereign!" Luomiu also landed and knelt.
"The previous Tianshan Prefecture prefect, Molde, committed a capital crime and has been executed. From today on, the Tianshan Prefecture's prefect will be this Luomiu before you." A voice like thunder rang out in everyone's ears and minds. Pressed down by the Sovereign's aura and pressure, not a single soldier dared to raise their head.
Then, the dozens-of-meters-tall giant face dissipated with a boom, and the world returned to clarity.
Only then did the soldiers dare to look up. Seeing the Sovereign was gone, they straightened up.
"Greetings, Prefect!" Those quick to react immediately knelt on one knee to Luomiu.
"Greetings, Prefect!" The hundreds of thousands of soldiers also knelt on one knee, shouting in unison.
Luomiu's sharp, arrow-like gaze swept across the surroundings. An involuntary smile appeared on his face. After so many years of bitter training, he had finally become a prefect, securing one of the 108 Asura positions in the Infernal Realm.
However, Luomiu was appointed by a Sovereign, not by defeating the previous prefect through the normal rules. So... naturally, many would refuse to accept Luomiu. It was foreseeable that many Seven-Star Demons would come to challenge him in the future.
"Come on, the more the merrier." Luomiu's eyes lit up.
A black dragon-type metallic lifeform flew through the air.
"The prefect is dead! Didn't we come all this way for nothing?" Inside the metallic lifeform, fifteen high-level god soldiers were gathered together.
The speed of sending news to the Starcloud Sea was relatively fast, but not a single high-level god soldier sent to the Kalosha Continent had arrived yet. In fact, of the one hundred high-level god soldiers, only about forty had successfully delivered the message over the past hundred-plus years. The others, especially those sent to distant regions, naturally took much longer.
It wasn't until Luomiu arrived and released the one hundred soldiers' divine clones trapped in the mansion that these soldiers learned Molde was dead.
"Since Molde is dead, even if we deliver the message, there's no reward. Brothers, let's go back."
"We've been traveling for over a hundred years, and now it's all for nothing."
These soldiers were clearly feeling resentful.
"Hey, I say, let's just sell this information. This news is huge. Selling it to the Demon Castle's intelligence department would fetch a high price. Anyway, Molde is dead; even if we leak the news, he can't kill us."
"Right, this kind of news is definitely worth a high price."
"This news also mentions Lord Linley. I think Molde was deliberately framing Lord Linley." These soldiers didn't believe the news was true.
Soon, these soldiers, who had traveled in vain and were doomed to get no reward from Molde, chose to sell this shocking news to the Demon Castle. The Demon Castle had many internal departments—escort, assassination, treasure hunting, and so on—and naturally also purchased intelligence and information.
This intelligence was bought by the Demon Castle. Moreover, the soldiers, no longer fearing Molde, also told the Demon Castle that Molde had ordered them to deliver this message to various prefects and Sovereign's envoys.
Since it fell into the Demon Castle's hands, they naturally sold this intelligence at a high price to many experts. Thus, the news quickly reached many powerful beings in the Infernal Realm.
Most experts believed Molde was framing Linley.
But some experts thought the news was true and searched everywhere for the three tokens, hoping to offer them to a Sovereign and receive a reward. As for the Sovereigns, having heard it through their collective meetings, they naturally ignored it. But at the same time... the Sovereigns were somewhat annoyed. How could such news be widely circulated among gods? The Sovereigns immediately ordered the Demon Castle to stop selling the news.
But...
The news had already spread. The Sovereigns' order came too late.
This matter, however, didn't affect Linley. Linley's life remained as calm and peaceful as ever. However, the many family members Linley had brought from the Yulan Continent, after spending a few hundred years in the Infernal Realm, lost interest in it.
There were too many experts in the Infernal Realm.
Most of the Baruch clan members were only at the Saint level. After undergoing the clan baptism, they became at most low-level gods. In the Infernal Realm, they could only be slaughtered.
Relying on the Four Divine Beasts clan's power, these Baruch clan members from the Yulan Continent visited some Infernal Realm cities. But the boring life still made many decide to return to the Yulan Continent. Linley didn't stop them. Using the Sovereign's medallion, he sent a group back to the Yulan Continent.
A thousand years had passed.
A thousand years of time meant little in the world of gods.
A thousand years had also allowed Linley to make considerable progress in cultivating the four Laws. The profound mysteries of the Earth Pulse and the Dimensional Attack profound mystery of the Wind system had fused, even reaching over halfway. The Dimensional Attack and the Softness profound mystery of the Water system had also fused. However... neither of these two fusions had reached completion.
As for the Fire system...
Fire system cultivation was indeed very slow, and it got slower the further he went. Back then, the fifth profound mystery took nearly a thousand years to cultivate. Now, the sixth profound mystery, the Explosion profound mystery, had been cultivated for over a thousand years but still hadn't reached completion.
Within the mansion, this green willow tree had now grown for over eight hundred years, its thousands of branches hanging down and dancing, so graceful.
"Yale, even though you became a god by fusing a divine spark, you can't give up. Who knows, maybe someone who became a god by fusing a divine spark can also fuse profound mysteries. Look at me, I had no confidence in fusing profound mysteries at all. But... me, Bebe, didn't I successfully fuse two? Haha." Bebe's loud laughter came from under the willow tree.
Under this thick willow tree was a black wooden table, around which sat three people: Bebe, Yale, and Wharton.
"I don't have such grand ambitions." Yale said with a smile, "Look at me, I'm a high-level god now. Even though I achieved it by fusing a divine spark. Compared to my days at the Ernst Institute of Magic, it's heaven and earth apart. Too far. Besides, I've rebuilt the Dawson Conglomerate, and my Dawson family has a bunch of descendants. I'm content, hehe. Now I just enjoy life, occasionally visit some material planes, and roam around freely. As a high-level god who fused a divine spark, I can walk sideways in material planes. Plus, I have the Sovereign power that Third Bro gave me."
After becoming a god, Yale had returned to the Yulan Continent to live for over two hundred years.
During those two hundred years, Yale had nineteen children and, relying on the hidden power of the Baruch Empire, easily rebuilt the Dawson Conglomerate. His nineteen children also multiplied, and the Dawson family flourished again. Then, bored, Yale brought his three wives back to the Infernal Realm.
Of course, that time Yale was unlucky. Using the Sovereign's medallion to teleport from the Yulan Continent to the Infernal Realm, it took eight teleportations before he finally reached the Bloodpeak Continent.
With the Sovereign's medallion, he could use teleportation arrays for free.
"Yale, Bebe, when should we go visit some material plane again?" Wharton suggested with a smile.
Back then, Beirut had lent Linley a Sovereign's medallion and never asked for it back. Linley didn't use it himself but let Bebe, Wharton, and others use it often.
"What's the rush? Next time, we'll wait for Big Bro to come with us." Bebe said.
While they were talking...
"Rumble..."
A powerful surge of natural Law fluctuations descended, originating from a certain part of Linley's mansion.
Bebe, Wharton, and Yale all stood up abruptly.
"It's where Third Bro cultivates..." Yale said quickly.
"Haha, Big Bro broke through! His Fire-type divine clone has finally reached completion!" Bebe cheered.
Just as Bebe said, Linley's Fire-type divine clone had indeed broken through.
In the underground secret chamber of the mansion, the secret chamber should have been dark.
But now, red light illuminated the entire secret chamber.
Linley, with brown-black hair, sat cross-legged, while beside him floated a Linley with fiery red hair. A black divine spark emitting red light hovered above his head—it was the Fire-type divine spark. Dense fire elemental energy gathered above the divine spark, with the natural Law contained within.
After a moment...
"Finally succeeded." The brown-haired Linley sitting cross-legged opened his eyes, and the Fire-type divine clone merged back into his body.
"This Fire-type divine clone's cultivation is indeed much slower than the others. Fortunately, the soul of the Fire-type clone, through energy transfer from the other four souls, gradually transformed, speeding up cultivation. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have broken through the sixth profound mystery so quickly." Linley stood up, a smile on his face. "When I fused three types of divine power, the power was close to Sovereign power. What about four types?"
At this moment, Linley finally began attempting to fuse four types of high-level divine power.
Full of anticipation, with a smile on his face, Linley's expression froze the moment he began the fusion.
"Crunch, crunch..."
Linley's body suddenly emitted strange sounds. His muscles swelled and convulsed.
Blue-gold dragon scales instantly emerged. Spikes on his forehead and back also appeared. His dragon tail, like a steel whip, trembled. A terrifying energy surged through Linley's entire body.
"Too... too incredible." Linley's eyes were filled with shock.