Chapter 21: Fusion of the Four Divine Powers
The intense pain made Linley’s entire body convulse, as if countless tiny insects were gnawing at his whole being. The pain that penetrated to the marrow of his bones—even Linley couldn’t maintain a calm expression. He could only grit his teeth and endure with all his might. At the same time, Linley’s divine sense carefully observed every part of his body.
Pure black, without a trace of impurity.
A black torrent surged through Linley’s body, without any pattern. Vast amounts of black energy flowed along muscle fibers, blood, and bones, scattering everywhere. Drops of black energy, as if finding a home, surged into his bones, muscles, internal organs, and so on. Linley’s entire body underwent earth-shattering, drastic changes.
“Rumble…”
His entire skeleton trembled, even producing the sound of bones colliding.
“The fusion of the four divine powers has actually turned into pure black. This black divine power is far more terrifying than the power of a Sovereign!” Linley hadn’t expected this.
He had originally thought that the fusion of three divine powers would be close to the power of a Sovereign. For example, for Linley, the fusion of three divine powers was equivalent to the power of the Destruction Sovereign. But compared to the power of the Earth Sovereign, which had the best effect on him, it was far inferior.
Linley had believed that the fusion of four divine powers would be, at most, ten times more effective. It would only be a few times stronger than the power of the Earth Sovereign.
But now, as soon as the four divine powers fused, a special effect occurred. They suddenly turned into pure black. Linley could clearly sense the immense power of the black energy.
For countless years, no one had been able to possess four divine clones and succeed in soul mutation!
Linley had succeeded, so the four divine powers could fuse.
The fusion of the four divine powers of earth, fire, water, and wind. The black divine power born from this was so terrifyingly strong that it made Linley’s heart tremble.
Suddenly—
On the surface of Linley’s body, on his blue-gold dragon scales, including the spikes, black threads began to appear. These black threads coiled around the dragon scales, spikes, and dragon tail, gradually penetrating deep into the scales. Looking at Linley’s appearance, it seemed as if a large number of black magical patterns had emerged on his skin.
“Buzz…”
The dragon scales on Linley’s body trembled violently. Because the frequency of the trembling was so high, a buzzing sound was produced, and even spatial ripples appeared.
“This black divine power actually has such a peculiar effect?” Although the pain throughout his body was excruciating, Linley, having reached the peak of cultivation, had an extremely clear mind. He could clearly sense that every part of his body was constantly transforming. His muscles were rapidly strengthening, and the hardness of his bones was leaping upward time and time again.
This terrifying rate of progress made even Linley’s expression change.
“Legend has it that the Azure Dragon, the patriarch of my clan, could use the power of a Sovereign to strengthen his own body, achieving an effect close to that of a Sovereign artifact. I suppose that was the power of the Water Sovereign, corresponding to his nature as a water-type divine beast. And now, this fused power of the four elements can also strengthen my body. This strengthening is like using divine power to nurture a divine artifact.”
Linley knew some relatively simple methods for strengthening the body.
The principle of body strengthening was actually to allow the body to gradually absorb energy and continuously strengthen itself. It sounded simple. But there was a lot of energy; how could one get the body to absorb it? That was the difficult part. This was generally related to talent. Divine beasts like the Soul-eating Rat and the Azure Dragon had methods for strengthening the body.
Clearly, this fused power of the four elements had the special effect of strengthening the body.
The nurturing of divine artifacts was also a process where the artifact, inside the body, gradually absorbed divine power, becoming sharper and tougher. It also integrated some spiritual energy, gradually developing sentience.
“Hmm?” Linley’s divine sense penetrated deep into his muscles and discovered that the subcutaneous tissue of his skin, as well as the junction with the dragon scales, had begun to undergo special changes.
“It seems this strengthening will take a relatively long time.”
Linley also understood that the strengthening process could be completely controlled and guided by spiritual energy. If he let the fused divine power strengthen his body freely, he didn’t know what kind of form his body would take.
“Father has already broken through, so why isn’t he coming out?” Taylor looked into the distance at the corner of the corridor.
Generally, after Linley succeeded, he would have to pass through that corridor corner to go from the secret chamber to the open grassy area outside. At this moment, it wasn’t just Taylor who was concerned. People like Bebe, Reynolds, Yale, and a large group of others were also paying attention. Delia and her daughter Sasha were also looking at the corridor corner, chatting at the same time.
“Mother, could it be that Father didn’t break through with his fire-type divine clone?” Sasha said softly.
“It should be fire-type. Your father’s other three clones reached the Highgod level long ago.” Delia frowned slightly. “But after breaking through, he should have come out.”
Just then—
“Delia.” A clear voice entered Delia’s mind.
“Linley, what’s wrong with you now?” Delia was overjoyed and immediately communicated with him through their souls.
“I have indeed made a breakthrough, but now I have gained some insights into strengthening the body and am studying it. So… I won’t come out for now. Don’t worry about me. As for this research, I don’t know if it will take a year or two, or decades or centuries.” Linley was also worried that the people outside would be concerned, so he used his divine sense to send a message.
“Alright, focus on your training.” Delia was actually quite happy inside, after all, Linley’s progress over the past thousand years had been very small.
Delia smiled and said to the people around her, “Alright, everyone. Go about your own business. Linley is still in a critical stage of training.”
“Still in a critical stage of training?” Bebe muttered.
“I was hoping Third Brother would come out so we could go out and have some fun together.” Yale stretched lazily, plopped down on a chair, and casually propped his legs up on the table.
“Do you think Third Brother is as bored as you?” Reynolds teased.
Leaving the outside world aside, Linley, in the secret chamber, was completely immersed in the process of strengthening his entire body. He used his powerful soul force to guide the direction of the strengthening. On the first day, the rate of Linley’s strengthening was the most dramatic, but as time passed, the rate gradually decreased.
However, this decrease was only relative to the first day. In reality, Linley’s daily improvement, if outsiders knew about it, would probably make their eyes pop out.
Nearly ten years passed silently. During this time, Linley’s mind never relaxed for a moment. As he gradually guided and controlled the process, he also discovered the most effective way to strengthen himself. Through gradual experimentation, a set of strengthening methods suitable for the fused divine power and Linley’s body was created.
In the mortal world, there were various douqi secret manuals.
But in the divine world, gods studied the most fundamental elemental laws and natural rules. So-called secret manuals were a joke to them. Take Linley, for example. He could now create any kind of douqi secret manual at will!
Everyone understood!
Even when it came to strengthening the body, there was no so-called strongest secret manual. Only what suited oneself was the best. Different bodies, bloodlines, and energies all had correspondingly best training methods.
What worked for the Azure Dragon might not necessarily work for Linley. After all, the energy within Linley’s body was the black divine power born from the fusion of four divine powers, something that had never appeared in any plane throughout history.
“It’s about time I’ve achieved mastery.”
Linley stood up.
At this moment, Linley’s body was covered in a layer of dark green dragon scales. In truth, under the strengthening of the black divine power, Linley’s dragon scales should have turned black. However, Linley’s original dragon scales were blue-gold. After the transformation, they had become this dark green color. Now, Linley’s dragon scales were denser and more tightly packed together.
If one were to get close to Linley, they would also discover—
On the surface of Linley’s dragon scales, there was an extremely thin, transparent membrane. This was the membrane produced after the black divine power strengthened the dragon scales and subcutaneous muscle tissue. However, this membrane was too thin and transparent. If one were a little farther away, it would be impossible to detect.
The spikes on Linley’s forehead, back, elbows, and knees had undergone the most dramatic transformation.
These spikes were originally the hardest and sharpest. After strengthening, they had become completely black! Their length and size had also shrunk slightly.
As for Linley’s dragon claws, the nails, which were originally sharp and long, had now retracted. When Linley was in his dragon form, his left and right hands, at first glance, simply looked like black hands. The nails were only slightly sharper. That was all.
This strengthening, from an external perspective, had made his originally extremely ferocious image a bit more restrained.
However, the current transformation, though seemingly more subdued, was hundreds or even thousands of times stronger than before the strengthening! “But the biggest gain from this strengthening is this—”
Linley smiled and extended his right hand. In his hand, a black longsword materialized out of thin air. It was the divine artifact, Shadow.
Divine power had the effect of nurturing artifacts. Legend had it that Sovereign artifacts were also born from the nurturing of Sovereign power. Of course, the nurturing of a Sovereign artifact also required the will and power of a Sovereign to achieve such a terrifying effect.
As for the divine artifact, Shadow, its material itself was extremely strong.
I’m afraid that even ordinary Sovereign artifacts, in terms of material alone, were inferior to divine artifacts. Over the past ten years, Shadow had been continuously nurtured by the black divine power, constantly growing stronger. However, nurturing a divine artifact required an extremely long time.
“Shadow hasn’t reached its limit yet. But even now, Shadow should be no weaker than a Sovereign artifact.” Linley had seen Sovereign artifacts before, which was why he could make such a judgment.
Let alone Shadow.
Even his own dragon-transformed body, Linley believed, should be close to the level of a Sovereign artifact.
“I really didn’t expect that the fusion of the four divine powers would have such an effect.” With a thought, Linley retracted his dragon scales into his body, and the natural energy on his body surface formed a set of dark green robes. In truth, after this strengthening, even if Linley didn’t transform into a dragon, the strength of his skin and muscles alone far exceeded that of his former dragon scales.
“The fusion of the four divine powers, such an effect. That’s right… The Azure Dragon ancestor could reach that level, so it’s normal for me to improve as well.”
Linley extended his right hand. With a thought—
“Whoosh!” He formed his hand into a blade and casually struck out, following the profound mystery of Dimensional Blade.
“Shiiing!” Space easily split open, creating a large rift.
“After this strengthening, my physical strength has also increased to a terrifying level. Even if my understanding of the profound mysteries is slightly lower, the power is still extremely strong.” Linley finally understood the advantage that Beirut had! With such a strong foundation, one didn’t need a very high level of insight into the profound mysteries to be invincible.
Linley smiled and opened the door of the secret chamber.
Inside the Linley estate.
Linley walked out and looked into the distance at the open space. Only a dozen or so people were there.
Wharton, who was chatting with someone, caught sight of Linley in the distance and immediately shouted in surprise, “Big brother!” At the same time, he ran over. Wharton’s shout immediately attracted the attention of many people. Everyone immediately gathered around, and the noise and excitement didn’t stop. It also drew out some people who were in the rooms or the hall.
“Linley.” Delia walked over happily.
“Haha, now there shouldn’t be anything that requires all five of my clones to go into seclusion.” Linley said with a faint smile. This strengthening wasn’t just for his main body; he had also strengthened all four of his other divine clones. Although those divine clones couldn’t transform into a dragon, their physical strength was also extremely high.
Delia’s eyes lit up. Linley not going into seclusion meant he had time to spend with her.
“Third Brother, we’ve been wanting to go out for a long time, just waiting for you.” Yale said with a grin, hugging his wife.
“Yeah, but Big Brother, you’re always training.” Bebe deliberately added.
Linley laughed heartily: “Haha, alright. Now I’ll properly accompany you all to go out and have some fun. But to be honest, I haven’t visited many places in the Infernal Realm. There are many unique places here. Come on… Let’s first tour the entire Infernal Realm, and then go to various material planes one by one.”
Having reached the peak of divine cultivation, Linley felt no pressure. He was happy to accompany everyone to travel and explore the Infernal Realm and the various material planes.
PS: Sorry, I was in a bad mood today, so I’m updating this late. Well, I’ll continue writing the second chapter.