Chapter 10: Sword Intent
Among the four laws of earth, fire, water, and wind, Linley selected four profound mysteries: Earth Pulse, Explosion, Softness, and Dimensional Attack. Among them, the most difficult to fuse was the Explosion profound mystery. Over these five thousand years, as Linley deepened his research into earth and water, he managed to perfectly fuse the Explosion profound mystery with Earth Pulse and Softness respectively.
Now, Linley had long since fused three profound mysteries—Earth Pulse, Softness, and Dimensional Attack—into one. As for the Explosion profound mystery, its fusion with Dimensional Attack had reached a bottleneck. Once that was fully achieved, only the final step would remain: the complete fusion of all four profound mysteries.
"Boom…" Waves crashed against the cliffs.
Linley hovered high in the air: "Now, two steps remain. One is the complete fusion of the Explosion profound mystery with Dimensional Attack. The other is the overall fusion of all four profound mysteries. Once the four different profound mysteries are fused into one, the power will be most terrifying. Surpassing that Augusta will be simple."
Then Linley calmed his mind and looked around.
The fused divine plane was only ten thousand miles in radius, yet this space had no sun.
Linley looked up and spoke a single word: "Light!"
Instantly, using divine power as the core, he gathered endless elements. The elements were compressed madly, and then high in the sky, a dazzling sphere formed—a sun! This sun hung at an extremely high point, radiating light wantonly, illuminating this entire space.
With a thought, Linley formed a planar membrane around the sun, protecting it.
"Normally, it can continuously absorb external elements and then release them in the form of sunlight, never fading." Linley smiled faintly. Then, using the same method, he created a moon on the opposite side of the earth. In this divine plane, the sun and moon would follow the plane's rotation, spinning endlessly.
When the sun rotated below the horizon, to the earth's opposite side, the moon would just rise above the horizon.
"Everything is done." Linley looked around. There was earth, mountains, seawater… but no life. However, life was not something Linley could create. At most, he could move some life from other places to here.
"Whoosh!"
A massive spatial rift suddenly tore open in the distant sky, and two figures flew out from it. They were Beirut in a black robe and Qinghuo in a white robe. Both looked somewhat surprised and curious.
"Haha, Linley. This fused divine plane of yours, though small, is actually more stable than the seven divine planes, approaching the four higher planes." Beirut waved his hand, cutting a spatial rift, and commented, "Moreover, the elemental density of earth and water in this plane is so rich."
Linley smiled helplessly: "Don't tease me. It took four thousand years just to create such a small plane."
"We're not teasing you." Qinghuo looked around and smiled. "Creating a plane—pity we can't create life."
"The creation of life is not a domain we sovereigns can meddle in." Beirut said with a faint smile, then looked at Linley with some anticipation. "Linley, after spending five thousand years, with your cultivation speed—especially after becoming a sovereign, and having two sovereign clones—your speed is now over a hundred times that of before you became a sovereign. In five thousand years, what level have you reached?"
Qinghuo's eyes also lit up as he looked at Linley expectantly.
"I've fused five profound mysteries of earth law and four of water law." Linley frowned and sighed. "But the fusion of four different profound mysteries from different laws is still lacking. This cultivation truly gets harder the further you go. I estimate that for me to truly achieve great success in fusing these four profound mysteries, it could take as little as a few thousand years, or as long as… I can't be sure."
Beirut and Qinghuo exchanged a glance.
Linley's achievements did not exceed their expectations. After all, five thousand years as a sovereign was definitely equivalent to five hundred thousand years of cultivation before becoming a sovereign.
The three sovereigns chatted and laughed in the newly created fused divine plane.
"Linley, when will you return to the Yulan Plane?" Beirut suddenly asked.
"No rush. My main body is still at Dragonblood Castle, so there's no need to hurry back. I plan to research my current strongest technique." Linley smiled faintly. "With my improved comprehension of law profound mysteries, my old techniques are no longer suitable in power."
"That's right." Beirut and Qinghuo nodded.
"Then we'll wait for you in the Yulan Plane. Haha, after you finish researching, you'll have to show us a demonstration." Beirut said cheerfully, and then he and Qinghuo left.
Researching the technique most suited to oneself wouldn't take long—usually ten days to half a month.
The four laws of earth, fire, water, and wind had a total of twenty-seven profound mysteries. Choosing the best four among them was extremely difficult. However, based on Linley's understanding of the four laws and his decision to focus on material attacks, he selected these four: Earth Pulse, Explosion, Softness, and Dimensional Attack.
Among them, Earth Pulse, Explosion, and Dimensional Attack were all profound mysteries extremely adept at offense.
Forcing them to fuse together was nearly impossible. Therefore, Linley chose the Softness profound mystery to act as a bridge, allowing the other three to fuse perfectly.
According to Linley's plan—
By taking the most powerful aspect of each of the four laws and combining them, the power would surely reach an inconceivable level.
The stars were dazzling and enchanting.
Linley stood in the void, holding the Shadowless Divine Sword. Sometimes he closed his eyes in thought, sometimes he casually demonstrated moves. Each demonstration caused space to collapse.
"Although I've only fused three, and the fourth, the Explosion profound mystery, hasn't been integrated yet, that doesn't matter. The Explosion profound mystery only serves to condense my attack, making it burst forth like a volcanic eruption in an instant, increasing the power by over ten times."
The ultimate technique he was researching now could still be used with the same move once all four profound mysteries were fused.
On the tenth day of research in the void.
"Whoosh!" The Shadowless Divine Sword flashed, and instantly the surrounding void trembled.
The Shadowless Divine Sword thrust out. In that moment, space seemed to freeze!
"Pfft—"
Like a fan opening, billions of sharp energy bursts erupted from the sword tip, tearing open billions of spatial rifts, each one over a hundred miles long.
"Almost there." A hint of a smile appeared on Linley's face, but then he sighed. "Pity, I haven't perfectly integrated the Explosion profound mystery yet. I can't condense all the attacks into a single point and unleash them in an instant." If those billions of energy bursts were condensed into one, how terrifying would the attack be?
Just as Linley was about to continue perfecting this move, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.
"One sword?" Linley's eyes lit up. "My soul power is far stronger than that of an ordinary sovereign. Why not conceal a soul attack within the sword? With one strike, it can contain both a material attack and a soul attack!"
Once the idea came, he immediately began to work on it.
On the sixteenth day of research in the void.
After continuous pondering, modification, and testing… changing and perfecting it again and again, until now, Linley himself could no longer improve it. Finally, he declared the ultimate technique born!
"It's finally perfected. However, I must fully control both the material attack and the soul attack. It seems I'll need to have two souls control them separately." Whether it was the material attack or the soul attack, both were Linley's ultimate moves. When executing any one move, Linley couldn't afford to be distracted.
Thus, he could only have two souls control each move separately.
"Time to test my strongest attack."
Linley smiled and flipped his hand, the Shadowless Divine Sword disappearing. In his hand appeared the Life Sovereign Sword!
Holding the Life Sovereign Sword, his gaze sharp as he stared at the endless void in the distance.
He infused fused divine power into the Life Sovereign Sword, and instantly a terrifying aura spread. "Rip!" Countless spatial currents in the void shattered, and spatial cracks like scars continuously appeared around him. Even before the Life Sovereign Sword had struck, its might was already on display.
"Buzz!"
The sword moved!
Like a flash of emerald lightning, it vanished in an instant.
The tip of the Life Sovereign Sword erupted with billions of sharp energy bursts, tearing open billions of spatial rifts that stretched endlessly into the distance. Like billions of entangled dragons writhing together, the billions of spatial rifts interfered with and influenced each other, causing large swaths of the void to collapse one after another!
A width of about a hundred meters, but a length exceeding a million miles—all collapsed!
When this move was executed, it wasn't just the billions of sharp energy bursts shooting out. In fact, an inconspicuous, palm-sized transparent sword shadow also shot forth.
"Pity, I haven't fused the Explosion profound mystery into this. The spread width of this sword strike is actually a hundred meters! If it were condensed into a single line, that would be true perfection." Linley commented to himself. Even so, the smile on his face showed that he was clearly satisfied.
One move, simultaneously containing a material attack and a soul attack.
"Since it contains both attacks, this move shall be called—Sword Intent!" Linley casually named it.
Sword Intent, literally sword and intent. The sword was the material attack, and the intent was the soul attack.
"I really look forward to it. When the four profound mysteries are perfectly fused, what level will this Sword Intent of mine reach?" Linley then turned and took a single step, crossing a thousand miles of space to enter the divine plane he had created. Both the earth divine plane and the water divine plane he created had spatial gates connected to the Yulan Plane.
Passing through the spatial gate, he arrived at the Yulan Plane.
Dead leaves fell with the wind. It was now deep autumn. Five thousand years had passed, and every tree, every brick, every stone within Dragonblood Castle bore the marks of history's sedimentation.
Under an ancient tree that required ten people to encircle, Linley, Beirut, and Qinghuo gathered.
The three sovereigns had naturally formed a small group.
"Grandpa Beirut, what did you say?" Linley was greatly shocked. "We go out?"
"Yes." Beirut nodded with a smile.
"But with my current strength, I'm not confident about dealing with the Light Sovereign." Linley quickly said. That Augusta also had a supreme divine artifact.
"While you were cultivating in the created divine plane, Qinghuo and I discussed it carefully." Beirut smiled. "The fusion of your four different profound mysteries is even more difficult than achieving Great Perfection in a single law's profound mysteries. Although you've made great progress in these five thousand years, I'm worried that even if you spent another five thousand years, you might not make much more progress."
Linley fell silent.
The fusion of four different profound mysteries was terrifying in power, but also extremely difficult. This difficulty indeed surpassed the Great Perfection of a single law.
"So, we decided to choose another method." Qinghuo also said.
"What method?" Linley frowned, looking at Qinghuo and Beirut.
"You are a fused sovereign." Beirut smiled faintly. "And you have four clones. Currently, you've only fused two sovereign sparks. In truth, your potential hasn't been fully tapped. Our plan is to leave the Yulan Plane, go out, and hunt down a sovereign! Let you fuse another sovereign spark!"
Linley was shocked.
Qinghuo also nodded, looking at Linley. "With your strength, if you refine another sovereign spark, your power will completely surpass that of an ordinary Overlord, even surpassing the Light Overlord." Beirut's gaze was burning. "By then, the three sovereigns of the Yulan faction can naturally stand proudly among the forest of sovereigns."
"Would killing a sovereign not provoke the anger of other sovereigns, or even opposition?" Linley frowned.