Chapter 37: Infiltration
Above the blazing flames of the Divine Punishment Canyon in the Biels Mountains, after the fire-type Paragon Bamer departed, the other seven Paragon powerhouses and Linley remained silently suspended above the flames. Upon hearing the news Bamer had delivered, the eight of them fell into contemplation.
"Brodie left a message saying that the Red Diamond Crystal is in the Ocalen Plane," Linley mused with a furrowed brow. "After being hunted by so many powerhouses in the Infernal Realm, Brodie should understand how hot a commodity the Red Diamond Crystal is. Perhaps... he truly decided to give it up in exchange for a peaceful life."
Before the siege by the many powerhouses, Brodie might not have realized just how dangerous the Red Diamond Crystal was.
But after that experience, having lost a divine clone, Brodie should have hesitated about whether to keep holding onto the Red Diamond Crystal! Holding it could greatly increase his power, but it also meant facing pursuit from countless powerhouses.
"You all know the news now. What do you think—is the Red Diamond Crystal on this Ocalen Plane or not?" the light-type Paragon Clementine said with a smile.
"Hmph, if Brodie is still playing tricks, driven by greed to hoard the Sovereign's divine artifact for himself, he's asking for death," the earth-type Paragon, a burly man four meters tall, said coldly.
"If you think the Red Diamond Crystal isn't here, then just leave this plane," the wind-type Paragon Baier said with a sneer, glancing around at the others. "I'm staying here anyway. Everyone... I won't keep you company any longer. I'm heading back." With a gust of wind, Baier vanished from their sight.
In a material plane, a Paragon's speed was akin to that of a Sovereign in the Infernal Realm.
"I won't linger either." Clementine also transformed into a streak of light and disappeared instantly.
One by one, the Paragon Highgods departed, leaving only Linley and Dannington.
"Linley, are you staying on the Ocalen Plane or leaving?" Dannington asked.
"No rush. The Red Diamond Crystal might still be on the Ocalen Plane," Linley said, frowning slightly. Then he smiled. "Dannington, let's make a bet—see who gets the Red Diamond Crystal first. Alright, we'll part ways here."
"You don't have as many people as I do. If anyone gets it, it'll be me," Dannington laughed.
With that, Linley and Dannington transformed into two afterimages, flying off in opposite directions.
After thoroughly scouring the entire Ocalen Plane, Linley was already ninety percent convinced that the Red Diamond Crystal probably wasn't there—that the Ocalen Plane was just a transit point for Brodie's escape. The remaining ten percent was only because he wasn't willing to give up and leave just yet.
But after this incident, knowing what he now knew, Linley's thinking had changed.
Since Brodie had said that, perhaps the Red Diamond Crystal really was on the Ocalen Plane.
At the mountain-top mansion on Liangya Mountain in the Morin Empire, eastern Ocalen Plane. "Boss, what do you think Brodie is up to?" Bebe asked, frowning after Linley finished explaining.
"A treasure like the Red Diamond Crystal—of course, he wouldn't just hand it over to us easily!" Linley said with a frown. "But now that I've turned the Ocalen Plane upside down and found nothing, there's only one possibility left." This final possibility was what troubled Linley the most.
"Divine sense can easily cover the sky and earth, but it's very hard to thoroughly search inside living bodies. So, the Red Diamond Crystal might be hidden inside some creature!" Linley said, frowning.
Anything with spirit or life resists divine sense intrusion from the outside. It's extremely difficult.
For example, divine artifacts contain spirit. Even Linley couldn't penetrate a divine artifact with his soul force to check what was inside.
Take Bebe's divine artifact weapon—he kept his spatial ring inside it. Even a Sovereign couldn't use divine sense to penetrate a divine artifact weapon and inspect it. Of course, hiding a spatial ring inside a divine artifact was nearly impossible. During the forging process—smelting, hammering, and so on—a spatial ring would be crushed. Only someone like Bebe, who created divine artifacts purely through willpower, could keep a spatial ring intact inside one.
Besides divine artifacts, ordinary living beings also had spirit. Every creature's soul naturally repelled external soul force intrusion. The strength of this resistance depended on the soul's power.
If the being itself was too strong, it simply wouldn't allow intrusion.
Take Linley, for instance. An ordinary Paragon might be able to send a divine sense message to Linley, but they couldn't possibly penetrate his body with divine sense to probe his secrets.
But for weaker beings, like ordinary mortals...
A god could examine a mortal by focusing slightly, but penetrating a human body required concentration. The spiritual energy couldn't be too strong, or it might shatter the mortal's soul. Too weak, and it might not penetrate at all.
So, deep examination of a body was very difficult.
Examining a soul was even harder!
When Delia was unconscious, Linley didn't dare use soul force to examine her deeply, afraid of accidentally destroying her soul.
"The Ocalen Plane is enormous. Brodie probably chose this plane because he'd heard it had a huge population," Linley said, frowning. "To check if something is hidden inside a human body—even I can't examine millions at once. It requires great care and patience. In one go, I can probably only check a thousand people."
It wasn't about the strength of soul force, but the ability to multitask. Each check had to be careful—the penetrating spiritual energy couldn't be too strong or too weak.
"The Ocalen Plane's human population, though far less than the Infernal Realm, is still close to eight hundred billion," Linley said, frowning.
That number was enormous.
The Ocalen Plane had two continents, each tens of millions of miles across. The Yulan Continent was only twenty to thirty thousand miles across. The land area difference was nearly a hundred million times. The Yulan Continent had tens of billions of people, so eight hundred billion on the Ocalen Plane wasn't too exaggerated.
Compared to the Infernal Realm, it was just a tiny fraction.
"And it's not just humans. There are also magical beasts—on land, in the air, and deep in the oceans. The Red Diamond Crystal could be hidden inside any of them," Linley said helplessly.
A thorough search would indeed be a monumental task.
Of course, there was a faster way.
That was to ignore the tolerance of humans and magical beasts, sending a vast wave of divine sense crashing through everything. The consequence would be countless humans and magical beasts with fragile souls dying instantly. Examining dead beings required no caution, so it would be fast.
But that would kill too many people.
"To find the Red Diamond Crystal quickly, kill eight hundred billion humans and an equally staggering number of magical beasts? Turn the entire plane into a dead one?" Linley shuddered at the thought.
He wouldn't do such a thing himself, and if anyone else dared, he would stop them.
"Boss, forging a divine artifact involves smelting, hammering, and other processes. A spatial ring inside would be crushed. So it's unlikely the Red Diamond Crystal is hidden in a divine artifact," Bebe said. Only two beings across countless planes had Bebe's ability.
Linley nodded. "Now, we only have to check inside humans and magical beasts."
"That bastard Brodie really knew how to pick a plane. If it were a plane like the Yulan Plane with such a small population, checking would be much easier. But he had to choose this Ocalen Plane," Bebe cursed.
"Don't worry. The other eight groups have already started searching various living beings," Linley said with a faint smile.
He himself wasn't in a hurry to search.
Linley's divine sense could cover the entire plane. The moment anyone found the Red Diamond Crystal, he would know immediately.
"Now, I'm just missing one artifact." Linley looked down at the spatial ring on his hand. His divine sense entered the ring and easily found the crown inside. The Black Iron Crown was set with nine spirit pearls, and only the central Red Diamond Crystal was missing.
After arriving on the Ocalen Plane, Linley no longer worried about Sovereigns causing trouble, so Bebe had given him back the spatial ring containing the two artifacts.
"Bebe, come with me," Linley said suddenly, standing up.
"What for?" Bebe was startled.
"I noticed that the light-type Paragon Clementine isn't just having his Highgod subordinates carefully search living beings. He's also leading some of his people to the headquarters of the Radiant Temple. It seems he's going to use secular forces to help find the Red Diamond Crystal," Linley said with a hint of a smile.
It was indeed a good idea.
When Brodie first arrived on the Ocalen Plane, he might have shown the Red Diamond Crystal to some mortals. Through secular forces, they might find clues.
"He's going to the Radiant Temple, so I'll go straight to... the assassin intelligence network."
With his divine sense covering the entire plane, Linley easily knew many secrets of the Ocalen Plane.
The Ocalen Plane's Mist Continent was vast and boundless. Because of its size, no single empire could rule the entire continent. There were over a hundred empires alone on the Mist Continent, with countless kingdoms and duchies.
Some special dark organizations even surpassed empires in power.
For example, the Mist Continent's number one assassin organization, Blood Blade. Legend had it that the organization's top expert was a god-level being. They also had hundreds of Saint-level experts.
The Blood Blade organization had no single headquarters. Their bases were classified as third-tier, second-tier, first-tier, and special-tier.
Because the Mist Continent and the Beast God Continent were so vast, the Blood Blade organization had eight special-tier bases, two of which were on the Beast God Continent.
"A diamond-shaped red crystal! Yes, according to this image, send it to all bases immediately. Anyone who provides information on this red diamond crystal will be immediately promoted to core member and rewarded with a tamed Saint-level magical beast to sign a contract with!" The Blood Blade organization's top expert, a god-level being and the organization's Shadow Elder, issued this order.
The order was at the Blood level.
Blood-level orders hadn't been issued in over a hundred years. As soon as it was sent, it spread to all bases, which immediately mobilized their people—including external intelligence agents and even street thugs—to search for information on the Red Diamond Crystal.
But the Blood Blade members were puzzled. Why was the Shadow Elder so desperately seeking this red crystal? And offering a tamed Saint-level magical beast as a reward!
Inside a quiet courtyard at the Mengya Mountain base.
An old man with blood-red hair and blood-red eyebrows bowed respectfully. "Lord Baruch, regarding that crystal, all our bases across the Mist Continent have received the news. If the Red Diamond Crystal has ever appeared anywhere, our organization will surely find it for you."
"However, our organization's influence on the Beast God Continent is insufficient," the blood-haired old man said apologetically.
"You've done well." Linley nodded with a smile.
"Here are eleven Midgod divine sparks, covering all seven laws and four edicts. Consider this your reward." Linley flipped his hand, and eleven Midgod divine sparks flew toward the old man.
The blood-haired old man's eyes turned red.
A Midgod divine spark! To him, a Demigod, it was the most coveted treasure.
"I warned you, after fusing a divine spark, it's hard to break through on your own," Linley said indifferently.
"This subordinate does so willingly," the blood-haired old man said quickly. Once he became a Midgod, he could match the two strongest beings on the Ocalen Plane—the Light Goddess and the Beast God.
"If you find any information about the Red Diamond Crystal, I can grant you a Highgod divine spark. Alright, you may leave," Linley said flatly.
"Yes, Lord Baruch."
The blood-haired old man's eyes lit up with excitement, but he didn't dare disturb Linley further and withdrew.
: Chapter 1 arrives