Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 40, Undying Warrior Transformation

Reading the information in this letter regarding Wharton, Linley couldn’t help but start to frown.

“Wharton has registered for next year’s selection process to become an honorary disciple of the War God’s College?” Linley was rather puzzled and also rather dissatisfied. “Why does he want to enter the War God’s College? Even the personally taught disciples of the War God at most reach the Saint-level. What, a Dragonblood Warrior can’t reach the Saint-level on his own?”

Linley knew very well that entering the War God’s College wouldn’t have much of an impact on their development.

After all, Dragonblood Warriors were absolutely guaranteed to eventually become peak-stage Saint-level combatants. The Supreme Warriors were nothing to trifle with.

As for the Deity-level...

Despite the passage of so many years since the War God O’Brien had founded the Empire, not a single one of his honorary disciples or personally taught disciples had reached the Deity-level, right? The Deity-level wasn’t something that could simply be taught by a Deity-level combatant.

“How could one’s understanding of the Laws and principles of the world be taught? Everyone has their own insights. The road others have taken might not be suited to one’s self.”

Linley was somewhat unhappy with his younger brother’s decision to register and attempt to become an honorary disciple of the War God’s College.

However, his younger brother had grown up.

“I can’t blame Wharton for making his own choices.” Linley continued to read. At the very end, a hint of laughter appeared on Linley’s face. “Haha, so this kid, Wharton...haha...”

The letter Yale had ordered to be delivered explained in detail the reason why Wharton had registered for the chance to be selected as an honorary disciple of the War God’s College. The primary reason was because of the Seventh Princess of the Empire.

“I hope that Wharton will have a perfect, unbroken love life. At the very least, it must not be like mine was.” Linley blessed his younger brother silently.

Indeed, the reason Wharton wanted to become an honorary disciple of the War God’s College was because of her. Given that the master of the War God’s College was the founding Emperor of the O’Brien Empire, War God O’Brien, upon entering the War God’s College, it would be much easier for Wharton to wed an imperial princess.

After reading the letter, a flame emerged from Linley’s hands.

“Crackle.” The letter was reduced to ash.

Alongside Rebecca, Linley made his way back to their manor.

His days of peaceful training continued. Linley continued to keep an eye out for Wharton’s affairs. According to the reports in the letters, the Seventh Princess of the Empire was an extremely beautiful girl, and she was also very adorable and kind. She was also doted on by her imperial father, which was why she had many pursuers.

Several of them had higher social statuses and rankings than Wharton.

However...

The Seventh Princess of the Empire was on very good relations with Wharton. She would often go out to play and joke around with him.

The next year, the competition to join the War God’s College began. This was also the fourth year for Linley and his squad here at Cloudpeak Village.

“Big brother Linley, here’s your letter.”

Rebecca once more delivered a letter to him. Linley immediately opened it and began to read. Based on the timing of events, this letter should have information regarding the grand competition.

Given his younger brother’s ability, he should be able to succeed.

“Oh? He failed?” Reading the contents of the letter, Linley frowned.

The competition to become an honorary disciple of the War God’s College had resulted in a young man named Blumer [Bu’lu’mo] capturing that position. This sort of competition wasn’t the type of competition where the last man standing would be given the position.

It was a series of competitions resulting in a total of ten finalists. From within these ten finalists, either the War God himself, or one of his personally taught disciples, would select the next honorary disciple.

Wharton had indeed become one of the ten finalists, but in the end, the War God’s College had selected Blumer.

“Yet another genius?” Linley was very surprised.

Blumer was currently 32 years old, yet had just entered the ninth rank as a warrior. This astonishing natural talent was indeed quite incredible.

“But in terms of talent, Wharton should still be somewhat superior to him. This year, Wharton should be 21 years old, but he has already entered the eighth rank as a warrior.” Linley had learned just a month ago that Wharton had entered the eighth rank as a warrior.

A 21-year old warrior of the eighth rank was very astonishing as well.

“Hrm?” Reading Blumer’s background information, something caught Linley’s eye.

“Blumer’s older brother is actually the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier?” Linley was quite surprised. Olivier was that genius who, immediately upon entering the Saint-level, defeated the Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon.

It wasn’t impossible for an early-stage Saint-level to defeat a Saint-level who had entered the Saint-level many years ago.

What it required was a higher level of understanding and insight.

For example, Linley. Right now, his level of understanding and insight was already at the peak of the Saint-level. Only, because his physical strength and battle-qi was too low, it was impossible for him to enter the Saint-level at this time.

As soon as he reached the required amount of strength and battle-qi, he would enter the Saint-level.

This was why Linley now spent a large majority of his time training his battle-qi. He wanted to break through to the ninth rank as quickly as possible.

“I wonder how Wharton is currently feeling.” Linley wondered to himself. That buck-toothed, chubby cheeked kid from years ago was now an adult.

Linley was truly filled with love and affection towards Wharton.

“The Emperor of the O’Brien Empire, if this letter is accurate, should already know that Wharton is the descendant of the Dragonblood Warrior clan. Given Wharton’s power, he clearly is capable of Dragonforming. As a Dragonblood Warrior, the imperial clan would not be disgraced by Wharton marrying the Emperor’s daughter.”

Actually, Linley didn’t really feel much respect or fear towards the so-called royal clans or imperial clans.

The only thing he feared and respected was truly powerful experts, such as the War God, the High Priest, the King of Killers, and the two Kings of the Forest of Darkness and the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. The people who stood at the pinnacle of the world.

Understanding and insight was important. Physical strength was important as well! To Linley at his current level in particular, improving his battle-qi and physical strength was something he desperately needed.

When using the same technique of ‘wielding something light as though it was heavy’, the force of Linley’s attacks were dozens of times weaker than that of a Saint-level combatant.

The same was true for the Profound Truths of the Earth.

At this time, Linley perhaps could seriously injure a Saint-level combatant if he caught him off guard, but if a Saint-level combatant were to use the technique, he definitely could cause the opponent to instantly perish.

The three vibrational waves were the same, but the strength of the vibrations was just on totally different levels. The vibrational power unleashed by a Saint-level combatant would be ten times higher.

“The basics!”

Linley sat in the meditative position on his bed, all the muscles on his body twitching as though countless worms were crawling beneath his skin. The veins on Linley’s forehead were bulging outwards as well.

The azure-blackish battle-qi was rapidly circulating through Linley’s arteries, each time bringing with them the unique, nourishing, strengthening effects of the Dragonblood battle-qi.

Within his dantian region.

The battle-qi had already achieved a very high degree of density. That liquefied battle-qi was constantly swirling about at a slow pace in the middle of his dantian.

“Whew.”

Linley let out a long breath, and when he did, a white mist spat forth from his mouth in a line as flat as a sharp sword.

“Who knows how long it will take to advance from the peak of the eighth rank to the ninth rank.” In the past four years, Linley had managed to reach the peak-stage of the eighth rank. But as always when it came to training, the most critical juncture was also the one which took the most time.

Right now, Linley, when transformed, was still just at the peak of the ninth rank.

As soon as he broke through to the ninth rank, Linley would be an early-stage Saint-level combatant when Dragonformed.

The peak of the ninth rank to the early-stage Saint-level was a true transformation. There was an enormous difference between the two levels.

“Haha...hahahaha....” Suddenly, a bout of wild laughter erupted from outside the room. Linley stood up from his bed, puzzled. “Why are the Barker brothers so happy, this early in the morning?”

At this time, the sky was just barely lit, and the world was covered by a thick fog. Ordinary people wouldn’t even be able to see someone five meters away; all they would see was the fog.

“Big brother Barker, why are you guys ranting like this early in the morning? We sisters need our sleep!” Rebecca called out unhappily.

Linley’s vision was far stronger than that of ordinary people’s. At a glance, he could tell that the eldest of the five brothers, Barker, was so happy he couldn’t control himself.

“Big bro, why are you so happy?” The other four siblings all came out of their rooms as well.

“I succeeded. I’ve broken through to the ninth rank.” Barker excitedly said to his four brothers. “Haha, when transformed, I can finally reach the early-stage of the Saint-level.”

The Undying Warriors’ transformation was very similar to that of the Dragonblood Warriors in this respect. If in their normal, human form, they were of the ninth rank, once transformed, they would be at the Saint-level.

“Early-stage Saint-level?” Zassler, who had just walked out of his own room, was shocked as well.

Linley, the sisters, and the four brothers of Barker were both stunned as well.

Linley’s eyes were shining.

“Barker, you’ve really broken through?” Linley said with uncontrollable excitement.

Barker nodded. “Yes, Lord. I truly have broken through.” In the past, the Barker brothers all addressed Linley as ‘Lord Linley’. Now that they were in the village, everyone was pretending that Linley was a noble and the five brothers were his guards, so naturally, they continued to address Linley as ‘Lord’.

After four years, everyone had gotten used to this form of address.

After all, the five Barker brothers were very heroic, blunt figures. Their minds weren’t nearly as agile as Linley’s and Zassler’s. The decisions of this group were primarily made by Linley.

“Let’s go to the empty space in the west. Let us get a good look at your current power.” Linley immediately said.

Everyone excitedly rushed out of the manor towards the empty space in the west side. Because the sun wasn’t totally up yet, most of the people in the village were still sleeping. Not a single person could be seen.

“As soon as he transforms, he’ll be Saint-level. Master, how long will it take before I’ll be able to break through?” The Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, said with some frustration to Linley.

Haeru had already been at the peak of the ninth rank for a long time.

“Groooowl.” Bebe growled angrily at him. “Haeru, don’t think I don’t understand what your sly intentions are. You have designs on that Saint-level magicite core the Boss has.”

Linley laughed as he shook his head.

For a magical beast of the peak of the ninth rank to break through to the Saint-level usually required them to make the breakthrough on their own. But of course, if they were to consume a Saint-level magicite core of the same elemental type as their own, there was a very high chance that they would be able to suddenly break through.

But of course, there was a chance of failure as well.

“Groooowl.” Haeru growled at Bebe as well. “Bebe, I’m not like you. You’ve been growing stronger this entire time, during the past four years. But I’ve stopped.”

Exactly what sort of magical beast Bebe was, no one knew.

But Bebe was definitely a type of magical beast whose natural talent was even more terrifyingly high than Blackcloud Panthers. Although four years ago, Bebe was roughly on par with Haeru, in truth, Bebe was still growing and developing.

After these past four years, Bebe at his current level of power could easily devastate the Blackcloud Panther.

In terms of speed or defense, Bebe was extremely terrifying.

“Most likely, even a Saint-level combatant would have to spend quite a bit of effort to kill Bebe.” Linley’s heart was filled with appreciation. Four years ago, Bebe’s defense was already frighteningly high. Now, it was so high as to be unspeakable.

“Haeru, that Saint-level magicite core the Boss has is darkness-element, but you are dual-element, wind and darkness. If you eat it, the chance of failure is too high. It isn’t worth it! I’m a pure darkness-element magical beast. When I reach the end of my development, the chances of me making a breakthrough after consuming it is much higher than yours.” Bebe said arrogantly. “What, you aren’t happy? You want a taste of my claws?”

Haeru let out a growl, then fell silent.

Bebe arrogantly stuck up his little head. Haeru, this extremely arrogant magical beast, had been thoroughly cowed by Bebe.

Right at this time, Barker was about to transform.

“Bebe, knock it off.” Linley was focusing on Barker, who stood in front of everyone.

“Haha, everyone, watch carefully.”

Barker was extremely excited. With a popping sound, the muscles on his body began to constantly crackle and pop. The muscles on Barker’s body began to wildly expand, while at the same time, the color of his skin and muscles began to transform as well.

Thunderous crackles!

Barker, originally 2.2 meters tall, had now expanded in size along with his swelling muscles. In the blink of an eye, Barker had transformed into a terrifyingly large and powerful looking giant who was 3 meters tall.

Barker’s entire skin had turned into a light green color.

His skin and muscles seemed like they were made from stone, and those enormous, defined muscles clearly contained an unimaginable amount of power. Just by looking at him, one could tell this. And then, atop his light green skin, a layer of white, marble-like armor suddenly began to appear, eventually covering his entire body aside from his face. Even his head was covered by a white marble helmet.

This so-called armor and helmet was grown from his very body. It was terrifyingly odd.

And then, Barker suddenly rose into the air, flying in a circle before settling down and hovering in mid-air.

“Haha, the Saint-level. This is the power of the Saint-level.” Barker excitedly smashed his two gigantic fists together. When he did, the air itself rippled from the force of that blow.

This was a Saint-level Undying Warrior!