Chapter 34: Concealing Strength
At the peak of Mount Wessir, the teleportation array lit up once again.
"Many powerful beings have appeared—their auras are terrifying! Far stronger than the elders of my tribe. Could they all be gods?" The Iron-Feathered Eagle, hiding deep within the dense thicket, gazed at the distant mountaintop. This young Druid, transformed from an elf, had been too frightened to move ever since he first witnessed the descent of the gods. Even the two magical beasts that had been locked in fierce combat earlier had been too terrified to continue their fight.
Now, a group of Highgods had appeared on the mountaintop—just as numerous as before.
"Including this batch, there are already over ten thousand," the young Druid silently calculated.
Leading this group of Highgods was a man draped in a white robe, with white hair and white brows. His brows were sharply upturned, and his eyes were narrow like a fox's. This man was none other than Linley's old acquaintance—the Wind-style Grandmist Compass Highgod, Byer. Byer's forces were still in the process of teleporting over in batches.
Suddenly, another teleportation array flared to life.
"Huh?" The young Druid was startled.
Every previous teleportation had brought over a hundred people. But this time, there were only two: a young man and a youth.
"Though there are only two of them, it seems... that group of over a thousand is quite afraid of them." The young Druid clearly saw the arriving youth locking eyes with the white-robed, white-haired, white-browed man, exchanging some words. They were Linley and Bebe.
"Byer, don't get too cocky. It's not decided yet who will get the Red Diamond Crystal," Bebe snorted coldly. This Byer had once fought a great battle with Linley and the others in the Planar Battlefield. There was some old enmity between them.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Byer said coldly, casting a glance at Linley and Bebe. He knew that Linley had fought against Magnus and even banished him into the spatial turbulence. Therefore, Byer didn't dare go too far.
"Let's go!" Byer commanded.
Immediately, the vast group of people flew away, leaving only Linley and Bebe on the mountaintop.
"I thought I was fast enough, but I didn't expect so many people to have already arrived in the Ocalen Plane." Linley smiled faintly. At the same time, his divine sense spread out wildly. In an instant, it covered not only the two continents but also the vast oceans. "This Ocalen Plane is truly enormous. Even a Grandmist Compass Highgod would need to use Sovereign power to cover the entire plane at once. Without Sovereign power, the maximum coverage is just a continent of over a hundred million miles."
Although Grandmist Compass Highgods possessed the power of will, their souls themselves were not exceptionally strong. Relying solely on their own soul power, their coverage area was limited. In the Planar Battlefield, a Grandmist Compass Highgod relying only on their own soul power could cover a very small area. With Sovereign power, they could cover eight thousand miles! Linley, using Sovereign power, could cover thirty-six thousand miles! And if Linley relied on his own soul power, he could cover five hundred and twenty thousand miles!
In this material plane, Linley, using his own soul power, could completely cover the entire plane!
"Boss, have you found the Red Diamond Crystal?" Bebe asked quickly.
Linley frowned. "Hmm. Strange!"
"What's wrong?" Bebe asked, a little worried.
"Throughout the entire Ocalen Plane, there are over ten thousand Highgods. Byer, Dannington, and other Grandmist Compass Highgods have also arrived in force. But there are only two Midgods. Clearly, neither of them is Brody." Linley was puzzled. "Moreover, I haven't detected any Red Diamond Crystal in the entire plane. Perhaps it's hidden in a spatial ring, and I just can't find it."
If something was hidden in a spatial ring, even a Sovereign couldn't detect it with divine sense alone.
"Boss, if Brody isn't here and the Red Diamond Crystal isn't here either... could Brody have already left the Ocalen Plane?" Bebe asked worriedly. "Could he have just passed through here as a transit point, deliberately trying to deceive his pursuers?"
Linley frowned. "That's possible."
"To find out about Brody's arrival and departure, it would be easiest to ask the Plane Guardian." Linley's gaze swept over the courtyard beside the mountaintop. "Where has the Plane Guardian gone?"
"Could the Plane Guardian have been taken away by another group?" Bebe quickly added.
"Plane Guardians are usually not very powerful. Most are Midgods, and a few are Highgods." Linley's divine sense covered the entire Ocalen Plane. With his soul, which had undergone mutation and surpassed the power of Sovereign power, combined with a willpower even stronger than that of a Grandmist Compass Highgod, Linley's divine sense was undetectable even by the Grandmist Compass Highgods.
Just as Linley couldn't detect a Sovereign's divine sense when it spread out.
"Among the gods in the Ocalen Plane, aside from a few Demigods and two Midgods, all the rest are Highgods." Linley frowned.
In his view, the Plane Guardian should be among the Midgods or Highgods.
"Of those two Midgods, the female Midgod has a face that matches the countless statues on this continent. She seems to be a follower of the Radiant Goddess. And the beastman's appearance matches the statues of the deity worshipped on the other continent." Linley understood that those two were probably not the Plane Guardian.
In material planes, some religions didn't entirely worship Sovereigns.
For example, in the Yulan Continent plane, there were those who worshipped the War God O'Brien, and many in the Baruch Empire worshipped Linley. Anyone who became a deity could enjoy faith power. This faith power could improve the soul itself, and generally, the speed of cultivation and comprehension would increase. For instance, when comprehending the profound mysteries of the laws, having a large amount of faith power could make some originally difficult-to-understand mysteries clearer and easier to grasp.
Of course... faith power was still external help. One's own ability still played the main role in cultivation. For example, many Sovereigns, despite enjoying endless faith power, could spend countless years without reaching the Grandmist Compass realm in terms of law comprehension.
"Boss, maybe the Plane Guardian is a Highgod," Bebe said.
"Perhaps," Linley said with a frown. "Actually, I'm most worried about one thing."
"What?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
"I'm worried that the first group to arrive took the Plane Guardian, got some important information from him, and then killed him to prevent others from getting the news." Linley's brow was creased with worry. He had already rushed over as fast as he could.
But others had been even faster!
"How did those people get here so fast? Boss, your speed should be faster than an ordinary Grandmist Compass Highgod's," Bebe muttered.
"I suspect that the Grandmist Compass Highgods were brought to the teleportation array by Sovereigns. My speed is fast, but it's nowhere near a Sovereign's speed. As for those groups of Highgods, they were probably dispatched from the military garrisons near the teleportation arrays." Although Linley was guessing, he was quite certain.
And the truth was exactly as Linley had said. Sovereigns valued the Sovereign's artifact highly, so it was perfectly normal for them to personally bring Grandmist Compass Highgods to the teleportation arrays.
"Hum." The teleportation array lit up again.
Linley glanced at it and frowned. "There are really a lot of people. Bebe, let's leave this place."
Immediately, a layer of Wind-style divine power spread from Linley's body, enveloping Bebe. The two of them turned into a streak of cyan light and vanished into the sky in an instant. Neither Linley nor the other gods or Grandmist Compass Highgods paid any attention to the Iron-Feathered Eagle hiding in the tree not far away.
To them, it was just a magical beast. They wouldn't even give it a second glance.
"Wow! What kind of speed is that? The earlier large group was fast, but I could still see them. But these two..." The Iron-Feathered Eagle was stunned.
The descent of over ten thousand Highgods, and the awe-inspiring sight of them flying away, had already terrified many Saint-level experts in the Ocalen Plane. Soon, news of the gods' arrival began to spread rapidly. The Radiant Temple was the first to receive the news. The Radiant Goddess herself personally ordered her subordinates to be careful with their behavior and not to offend any mysterious figures for the time being.
The Radiant Goddess herself had also seen that vast group of powerful beings.
Good heavens! She was at least a Midgod!
In a material plane, she was practically invincible. But any one of those thousand people was stronger than her. Any one of them could destroy the Radiant Temple.
The Misty Continent was vast, spanning over a hundred million miles. Such an area was nothing in the Infernal Realm, but it was millions of times larger than the Yulan Continent. On the Misty Continent, the number of empires, kingdoms, alliances, and so on was staggering. Many people would never cross the Misty Continent in their entire lives.
On a mountain called Liangya Mountain, within the Molin Empire in the eastern part of the Misty Continent, a mansion had appeared overnight on the mountaintop.
Many clever people in the area immediately understood that even a Saint-level expert might not be able to create a mansion on a mountaintop out of nowhere. Soon, many people climbed Liangya Mountain, hoping to pay their respects to the mysterious expert inside the mansion and become their disciple!
If they could receive training from a powerful expert, their futures would be changed.
But...
The closer they got to the mansion, the more terrifying the gravitational pull became. Even the strongest expert in the area around Liangya Mountain, a Level 9 warrior, tried to pay his respects. But when he got within six hundred meters of the mansion, he couldn't take another step forward. This showed how terrifying the gravity was!
That Level 9 warrior immediately exclaimed, "Such a terrifying gravity spell can only be cast by someone who has entered the divine realm!"
Inside the mansion on Liangya Mountain lived Linley and Bebe.
For three whole days, Linley had thoroughly searched the entire Ocalen Plane! "I originally thought that Brody might have hidden the Red Diamond Crystal deep in the ocean or deep underground. But now it seems my guess was wrong." Linley shook his head. Searching with divine sense was easiest in open spaces. The deeper one went underground, the harder it became.
To cover the entire plane while also penetrating a million meters underground was too difficult. Linley couldn't do it.
After spending three full days, Linley had turned the Ocalen Plane upside down!
"Boss, could it be that Brody really just passed through here? He deliberately made multiple transfers to throw people off?" Bebe muttered.
"Anything is possible! The simplest solution now is to find that Plane Guardian. He must know a lot." Linley had no other options.
"But we don't even know who the Plane Guardian is," Bebe said, his eyes lighting up. "Boss, why don't we just ask around and find out which group arrived first? Then we can go straight to the leader of that group. Boss, with your four types of divine power fused, your strength should far exceed that of a Grandmist Compass Highgod. If that Grandmist Compass Highgod dares not to talk, just beat him up, or even kill him, and make his subordinates hand over the person. See if they dare to refuse!"
The soul mutation of four avatars had given Linley a willpower surpassing that of a Grandmist Compass Highgod.
And the fusion of four types of divine power created a fused divine power that was ten times more powerful than Sovereign power.
Plus his incredibly strong body, which was close to a Sovereign artifact!
Back then, Linley's material attack was already a bit stronger than Magnus's. Now, his body was much stronger, and his divine power was ten times more powerful! In terms of material attack... Linley absolutely dared to claim he was number one among all gods!
"To kill a Grandmist Compass Highgod, I might have the ability," Linley said with a frown. "But now is not the time to reveal my full strength. If I use force to suppress others now, and the other Grandmist Compass Highgods in the Ocalen Plane learn of my true power, they might form an alliance out of fear."
Among gods, the Grandmist Compass Highgod was an invincible myth!
But with the unprecedented emergence of a four-avatar soul mutation, that myth was about to be shattered! If the Grandmist Compass Highgods knew Linley's true strength, and that they couldn't fight him alone, they would definitely form alliances to hinder him. Then, getting the Red Diamond Crystal would become much more difficult.
The tree that stands out in the forest is the first to be felled. Linley understood this principle well.
"For now, I'll act like an ordinary Grandmist Compass Highgod and not reveal too much of my strength," Linley said with a faint smile. "When the Red Diamond Crystal appears, I can reveal my power then. By the time they know, it'll be too late! I think... I'm not the only one looking for the Plane Guardian right now. The other Grandmist Compass Highgods will be looking too."
"Boss, you mean..." Bebe understood.
"Form an alliance! Join forces with other Grandmist Compass Highgods to force the one who captured the Plane Guardian to hand him over and reveal the information." Linley's divine sense, which was constantly spread across the Ocalen Plane, immediately and actively penetrated Dannington's mind. "Dannington is the best candidate for an alliance."