Chapter 36: The Nine Great Powerhouses
Above the Birs Mountains, Linley and Dannington, without any hesitation, transformed into two blurs as they pincered Bammet! The binding force of a material plane was far weaker than the Infernal Realm, and Linley and Dannington's speed had reached an astonishing level, almost like teleportation.
"Attack? Haha…"
Bammet's arrogant laughter echoed through the sky, while his entire body blazed with golden flames. The surrounding space was scorched, forming spatial tears from the heat. Then, ignoring Dannington, Bammet charged straight at Linley.
"Be careful," Dannington sent a mental message.
Linley just smiled faintly.
"Whoosh!" Bammet turned into a streak of flame, passing directly through Linley's body. Afterward, the flame reformed into Bammet's figure behind Linley.
"The same move as Azurefire back then," Linley said with a faint smile as he turned around.
"How is there no reaction at all?" Bammet was shocked.
A Paragon who cultivated the Laws of Fire was undoubtedly the most formidable in terms of offense, whether it was soul attacks or material attacks. Both were terrifyingly powerful.
"Soul attack? Too weak," Linley said, smiling at Bammet. In terms of soul strength, who could compare to Linley after his soul mutation? And he also possessed the Soul-Protecting Sovereign Artifact!
"My turn." Linley's figure suddenly moved.
The Shadowless Sword in his hand instantly slashed toward Bammet. The space trembled slightly, and the sword, like a teleport, appeared directly before Bammet. The attack speed of a Paragon far exceeded their movement speed, leaving Bammet no chance to dodge.
"Hmph." Bammet was unafraid. A Fire-type Paragon's material attacks were also extremely powerful. With a flip of his hand, a fiery red greatsword appeared.
"Clang!"
The fiery red greatsword and the Shadowless Sword collided instantly.
"Such strong power," Linley thought, feeling a tremor in his palm. But with a slight flex of his palm muscles, he absorbed the impact. After fusing the four types of divine power and undergoing the tempering transformation, Linley's body was incredibly strong. Even without dragonization, his physical strength could rank among the top ten across countless planes!
Having a Soul-Protecting Sovereign Artifact and having a body comparable to a Sovereign Artifact were two different concepts.
Having a Sovereign Artifact only meant strong defense, not strong strength.
But having a body comparable to a Sovereign Artifact meant that even sheer brute force was terrifyingly powerful.
Take Beirut, for example, or Hermes… It was precisely because their bodies were so strong, their brute force so immense, that even without reaching Paragon, their material attacks rivaled those of a Paragon.
As for Linley, his brute force was no weaker than Beirut's or Hermes's, and he also possessed the Will of the Laws!
This led to…
In this collision, Linley only felt a tremor in his palm, but Bammet was sent flying backward.
"Boom!"
Bammet's body slammed violently into the mountain rocks. The rebound force transmitted into the rocks. A force strong enough to send a Paragon flying such a distance—how could the rocks of a material plane withstand it?
"Rumble…"
The surface rocks instantly turned into powder. As the rebound force spread, the surface rocks undulated like waves and turned into dust. Like a shockwave, it traveled hundreds of miles, even leaping from one mountain to another.
All the peaks within hundreds of miles seemed to have been shaved off by a giant blade hundreds of miles long, leaving them perfectly flat.
The Divine Punishment Canyon, only about ten miles from where Linley and the others were fighting, was naturally within the affected range.
The hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the canyon felt the entire space tremble violently. Then—
"Rustle…"
The upper halves of the cliffs on both sides of the canyon turned into powder and gravel, cascading down like sand.
"Retreat! Quickly!"
The soldiers roared.
Endless gravel poured down from above. If they were buried too deep under all that sand, even the most skilled warriors might suffocate to death.
In moments, a sand dune hundreds of meters high had formed in the canyon.
"Heavens, being buried under a sand dune the size of a small hill means certain death. Lucky I ran fast," many soldiers said, looking at the towering sand dune with lingering fear. The massive sand dune had completely blocked the center of the canyon.
"What happened? Where did all this sand come from?"
"Heavens, the mountain peaks are gone. They're all flat now. It's like an invincible god used a blade to shave them off."
"The peaks were still standing just now. How did they disappear in an instant?"
Countless soldiers looked up, completely dumbfounded.
The high-ranking officers and powerful experts of both armies were also stunned.
"A miracle!"
Many people's eyes widened. At this point, neither army had any intention of continuing the fight. They were all awestruck by this miracle. In truth, even if they wanted to fight, they couldn't—the hundreds-of-meters-high sand dune completely blocked both sides.
"Let's go up and see." Many people from both armies rode flying magical beasts into the sky.
Some mages, and even a few Saint-level experts, flew into the sky using their own abilities. They all wanted to see what had happened.
"So many Saint-level experts," many people said, stunned, as they looked at the dense crowd of Deities hovering in the distance.
"Swish!" A figure shot over and slammed heavily into the cliff of the Divine Punishment Canyon. "Boom!" The cliff itself trembled violently, and a layer of rock more than ten meters thick instantly shattered into powder, turning into gravel that slid downward.
The fiery red figure that had slammed into the cliff soared into the air again.
"Linley, I told you, the Plane Guardian wasn't captured by me," the fiery figure roared.
The soldiers below scrambled to dodge. Fortunately, the gravel that fell this time was only a few meters deep, enough for the soldiers to survive. Many soldiers emerged from the gravel, looking up at the fiery figure in the sky. "Who… who is that?"
A single collision had caused such a terrifying scene?
"You still refuse to admit it?" The voice echoed through the heavens and earth.
"God… a god!"
The soldiers had completely mistaken the speaker for a god. They had no idea what ranks existed above the Saint level. To them, "god" and "deity" were roughly the same.
At that moment, two figures appeared above the canyon, confronting the fiery figure.
"Linley, your material attacks are truly terrifying," Dannington said in admiration.
"The Azure Dragon clan has always had methods for training the body. My body itself is strong, and with the addition of Law insights and the Will of the Laws, it's only natural that my material attacks are a bit stronger than an ordinary Paragon's," Linley said with a smile.
"A bit stronger?" The Fire-type Paragon Bammet felt bitter inside.
This wasn't just a bit stronger—it was a whole level stronger! It was outright bullying!
"Fortunately, while I can't completely deflect attacks of this level, they can't kill me either," Bammet thought, somewhat reassured. But he didn't know that the power Linley had just displayed was only a fraction of his true strength. Linley hadn't even used his trump card—the fused divine power.
If he used fused divine power, his attack power would increase tenfold.
Tenfold? What did that mean? It would be a complete one-sided slaughter!
Bammet looked down at the mortals staring up in awe and felt annoyed. Being humiliated in front of these mortals irritated him. "A bunch of ants," Bammet muttered. With a wave of his hand, a wave of flame energy spread out, instantly covering the sky and forming a sea of fire hundreds of miles long above the canyon.
This sea of fire, covering the entire canyon, blocked the view of those below. In later years, this canyon would be called the Annihilating Flame Canyon by the people of the Ocalen Plane. The flames Bammet casually left behind were so powerful that even Deities couldn't touch them.
"Linley, Dannington, the two of you can't kill me," Bammet said angrily. "I told you, the Plane Guardian isn't with me."
"Haha, Bammet, don't deny it anymore." A voice rang out, and another figure appeared.
"Bammet, your material attacks are far inferior to Linley's," another figure said.
"It's you!" Bammet frowned. Two more Paragons had arrived. Bammet spread his divine sense… and his frown deepened. He realized that not only had these two Paragons arrived, but the others were also rushing over at top speed.
Bammet's expression turned ugly.
"Bammet, don't deny the matter of the Plane Guardian. Hand him over," said a terrifyingly muscular figure, four meters tall, with earth-yellow skin and veins like tree roots entwining his body.
"Sigh, stubbornly holding out will only bring suffering," a mocking voice said. It was Bayer.
As time passed, the other Paragons also arrived.
"Haha, I'm the last one," said a streak of light as it appeared. The last to arrive was the Light-type Paragon, Clementine.
Including Linley, there were eight people in total. All eight stared at Bammet.
"Hmph, you're all here," Bammet said, his face dark. He snorted angrily, "I told you, the Plane Guardian isn't with me."
Above the canyon, endless flames swirled, and above the flames stood nine peak-level deities, eight of them surrounding one. Bammet was at an absolute disadvantage.
"Bammet still won't admit it. Dannington, it's up to you," the Light-type Paragon Clementine said teasingly.
Dannington glanced at Bammet. "Bammet, do you want me to use soul control on one of your subordinate Deities?"
Bammet's expression changed instantly!
He had finally found the flaw!
Using soul control on a Deity was extremely difficult, but Dannington could do it. Whether it was the Soul Imprint technique or the method of stripping soul fragments, all fell under the Death-type Laws. If one hadn't cultivated the Death-type Laws—for example, Fire-type or Water-type—even a Paragon couldn't use soul control or strip souls.
Everyone had their specialty. Without cultivating the Death-type Laws, no matter how strong one was, they couldn't use soul control.
"The Plane Guardian really isn't with me," Bammet said.
The eight experts, including Linley, all frowned, clearly thinking Bammet was being unreasonable.
"He's dead. I killed him," Bammet added.
The eight experts' eyes lit up.
Bammet sneered, "As for news about Brodie, only I know it now. But since you've pushed me this far, I might as well tell you. Not that it'll do you much good anyway."
"Whether it's useful or not isn't for you to decide," Bayer said, his brows furrowed, his tone cold.
Bammet continued, "Brodie did come to the Ocalen Plane. But after only a year, he left with his wife for the Life Higher Plane. However, before leaving the Ocalen Plane, Brodie said something to the Plane Guardian—"
The eight experts stared at Bammet.
"Brodie said, 'Mr. Bean, if a large number of Deities come to this plane searching for a treasure called the Red Crystal Diamond, please tell them that the Red Crystal Diamond is in the Ocalen Plane. But if they want to find it, they'll have to rely on their luck.'" Bammet finished speaking and sneered at the others.
The eight experts all pondered.
Everyone could sense the mocking tone in Brodie's words.
"Everyone, do you think the Red Crystal Diamond is in the Ocalen Plane?" Bammet asked with a sneer.
Brodie had left a message saying it was. But was it true? No one could be sure.
There were two possibilities. One was that the Red Crystal Diamond really was in the Ocalen Plane, just hidden too deeply to find.
The second was that it had gone with Brodie to another plane.
"Haha… Think it over. Whether you give up and go back or continue searching, it's up to you. I've told you everything I know." Bammet laughed loudly and flew away. As he left, he glanced at Linley. After their earlier exchange, he had been at a complete disadvantage.
"This Linley… it seems his ability to banish Magnus wasn't just luck. And he hasn't even dragonized yet," Bammet thought, a hint of wariness toward Linley growing in his heart.