Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 20, Discarding a Piece

The skeletal figure’s already-wrinkled face furrowed still further.

“Fain of the War God’s College, and Linley?” The green light flickered in the eyes of the skeletal old man. Clearly, he was thinking about something.

He had brought all nine of those silver robed men from the Gebados Planar Prison. They all possessed the power of Prime Saints. If it hadn’t been for Linley’s assistance, Fain would have had to spend quite a bit of effort to kill even just one of them.

The more powerful an expert’s soul was, the harder it was to dominate them.

Lord Beirut had destroyed a silver robed expert, fine. He didn’t dare to be the slightest bit upset with Lord Beirut. But Linley and Fain had also killed two of his important subordinates. He was upset now.

“Hrmph. If it wasn’t for the fact that I am busy with something important, I’d definitely head out and mentally dominate you two punks and have you two be controlled by me for a thousand or ten thousand years!” The low, hoarse voice of the skeletal old man rang out as a cold light flashed through his eyes. “Given the situation...”

“Yale. Come to my place quickly.” The skeletal old man’s voice once more rang out in Yale’s mind.

“Yes, Grand Warlock.” Yale didn’t dare to disobey at all.

Yale was currently staying at one of the side branches of the Dawson Conglomerate, located in a large valley in the southwest part of the Baruch Empire. This location was very close to all three major Empires; the Yulan Empire, the O’Brien Empire, and the Baruch Empire. Thus, the slaves which were being sent over by all three Empires were able to be quickly delivered to this valley.

As for the Grand Warlock...

He was living in a secret underground area in the innermost core of the valley.

Soon afterwards, Yale arrived at this gloomy underground room.

“Grand Warlock.” Yale respectfully dropped to one knee. In front of the Grand Warlock, Yale was unimpeachably faithful.

The Grand Warlock nodded calmly. With a flip of his hand, he produced a translucent flask the size of a thumb which was filled with a small amount of liquid. It flew directly towards Yale, who respectfully accepted it.

“Yale, mix the liquid in this vial into a flask of wine, and then take the flask of wine to meet Linley. Have Linley drink it. Remember...no matter what the cost, you must have him drink it.” The Grand Warlock calmly ordered.

“Yes, Grand Warlock.” Yale’s voice had no hesitation at all.

Shrouded in darkness, the Grand Warlock nodded calmly. “Enough. You can go now.”

Watching Yale leave, the Grand Warlock secretly sighed. “After drinking this ‘Soulsilk Poison’, Linley will definitely die. A pity. Linley’s friends and family members definitely won’t spare Yale, the ‘culprit’. Yale will die. It seems I’ll have to find another person within the Dawson Conglomerate to control.”

The night was dark. Yale, riding on the back of a Bluewind Hawk, flew at high speed in the direction of Dragonblood Castle. Behind him were two guards mounted on flying magical beasts. These two guards were both quite puzzled.

“Why is the Chairman in such a rush? It’s still late at night.”

“Who knows? In the past few years, the Chairman hasn’t seemed like himself. He no longer likes to joke, and he’s become so solemn.”

The two guards spoke softly to each other behind him, while Yale himself stared towards the northeast with a cold, expressionless face.

The next afternoon.

Yale’s party finally arrived at Dragonblood Castle, and the flying beasts landed.

“We’re here.” Yale swept Dragonblood Castle with his gaze, an utterly unfeeling look flashing through his eyes.

Within Dragonblood Castle.

Today, in Dragonblood Castle, Gates, Wharton, Zassler, and the others all felt uneasy and irritable. When Linley had returned, he had already made a detailed report to everyone about the ‘city of death’ affair and how the culprits behind the affair were those silver-robed men.

But behind those silver-robed men was a Deity who was controlling them!

A Deity level expert!

Those four simple words were like a mountain, crushing down against the hearts of Gates, Zassler, and the others. They all felt that tremendous pressure.

After eating lunch, Linley, Wharton, Gates, Zassler, and the others all sat down in the rear flower gardens to discuss the situation.

“Don’t worry too much. Harry has already said, after all, that the Deity won’t have time to get himself involved in other matters.” Linley saw that the others seemed to be rather worried, and so he couldn’t help but laugh and try to encourage them. “By the time that Deity is done, I should have broken through to the Deity level myself.”

“Big bro.” Wharton said nervously. “First of all, is it possible that the Deity will pause his activities to come act against you? Even aside from this, more importantly...even if you reach the Deity level, big bro, will you definitely be able to deal with that Deity?”

Wharton was extremely worried.

Linley, even after becoming a Deity, would only be a Demigod.

The enemy?

Who knew if the enemy was a Demigod or a full God? If the opponent was a God, then Linley wouldn’t have any chance to change the situation. Even if the opponent was a Demigod...there were major differences between Demigods as well. Could an early stage Demigod and a peak stage Demigod be viewed as the same?

After all, at Linley’s level, even other peak Saints would be easily killed by him.

It wasn’t impossible that a peak Demigod would be able to kill early stage Demigods in just one or two attacks.

“Have some faith in me.” Linley, seeing the worry etched on Wharton’s face, still felt very moved. He understood what his little brother, Wharton, was thinking about.

Zassler encouraged as well, “Wharton, don’t worry too much. In four more years, the War God and the others will all have returned as well. By that time, the situation will be different yet again. In addition, since when has your big brother ever let you down? You need to have faith in Lord Linley.”

Wharton nodded.

He looked at his big brother. Linley had killed the king of Fenlai Kingdom, become famous in the O’Brien Empire, had fought Haydson to a standstill, and now...just by relying on his own ability, was about to become a Deity.

“Big bro, I believe in you.” Wharton anticipated seeing Linley being able to overcome their enemy.

Linley actually felt much more confident than Wharton was.

First of all, if that mysterious Deity was to wait four years before coming, by then...Dylin and the others would have returned as well. He had originally gifted Dylin with that divine spark. Dylin owed him a huge favor in return. Linley believed that Dylin wouldn’t just stand by and watch with arms folded.

But of course, that was just relying on external strength.

Linley’s greatest support was...Bloodviolet and the Coiling Dragon ring!

Divine artifacts had differences in power as well.

For example, when they had first gone to the sixth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, they had encountered the Flame Tyrant and that divine artifact greataxe it had wielded. Even Saints could make full use of the special abilities of that divine artifact. Thus...without question, that divine artifact was a low level one.

The harder a divine artifact was to use, the more stringent its requirements were, the more powerful it actually was.

As for his Bloodviolet sword, up till now, Linley still was only able to rely on the hardness and sharpness of Bloodviolet to kill opponent’s. Linley was still completely unable to use some of the special abilities of the sword. For example...Linley was completely unable to make Bloodviolet change its size as he pleased.

Divine artifacts could all expand or contract in size. This was a basic ability.

But Linley wasn’t even capable of accomplishing this. Clearly, Bloodviolet was no ordinary divine artifact. Actually, when Linley’s spiritual energy had interacted with that terrifying baleful aura and seen that terrifying sight within Bloodviolet, he had known that it was a portent of how extraordinary this Bloodviolet sword was.

Bloodviolet was one powerful support. He also had the Coiling Dragon ring!

Up till now, Linley was still utterly baffled with regards to the Coiling Dragon ring. But Linley was certain that for him to not be able to sense anything about it at his current level of strength meant that the power of the Coiling Dragon ring was most likely no weaker than that of Bloodviolet, and perhaps even more powerful.

“Once I become a Deity, I’ll naturally be able to control and use my divine artifacts.” Linley was very eager.

He wanted to know the true power of Bloodviolet and of the Coiling Dragon ring!

“Lord, Chairman Yale of the Dawson Conglomerate has arrived.” A guard of Dragonblood Castle ran into the rear flower gardens and spoke to Linley respectfully. Even the quick glance he snuck at Linley was filled with a hint of worship.

“Yale?” Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.

“Quick, quick, invite him over.” Linley immediately felt very happy. To Linley, these three friends he had made during his youthful days had the exact same status in his heart as his real brother, Wharton.

“Yale?” Wharton frowned, then said to Linley, “Big bro, I forgot to tell you. Five years ago, after the great war began, Yale came to us and asked for us to give him the rights to purchase all of the battle captives we took. At that time, although Cena was rather unwilling, in the end, he had still agreed.”

“Oh?” Although Linley didn’t understand much about managing a country, he understood what purchasing all of the battle captives meant. This wasn’t something a person could do just because they had money.

“That’s not a major affair. No need to worry about it too much. I’ll just say a few things to Boss Yale about it.” Linley didn’t think too much about it and just spoke casually.

Hearing Linley’s words, Wharton didn’t say anything further. At this time, they heard the sound of footsteps. Linley immediately went to the gate of the rear flower garden to greet the person, and indeed...Yale, his face all smiles, walked in. As soon as he saw Linley, his eyes lit up. “Third Bro, it really is quite hard to meet you these days.”

“I’ve been busy with something important. Come, let’s have a seat while we chat.” Linley immediately said warmly.

Linley said to the nearby Wharton and Zassler, “Wharton, you guys can go rest for now. Boss Yale and I haven’t met for a long time. We’re going to have a nice long chat. Oh, right. Make the arrangements for a banquet feast tonight. Yale’s having dinner here tonight.”

Linley’s original plan had been to go back into closed door training after tonight’s meal.

“Yes, big bro.” Wharton nodded, then immediately left along with Gates and the others. Zassler frowned as he glanced twice at Yale, but he didn’t say anything as he left.

The maids of the castle quickly brought fine wine and winecups to the two.

“Boss Yale, why did did you want to buy all of our battle captives?” Linley asked curiously. Linley wasn’t planning to interrogate him; he was just a bit puzzled.

Yale intentionally put on a mysterious air. “That’s a business secret.”

“Jeeze, you...you’re going to talk about keeping ‘business secrets’ from me?” Linley immediately began to laugh, and he no longer raised the topic.

“Your arrival is quite the coincidence. If you were a day late, I probably wouldn’t have free time to spend with you.” Linley felt quite moved. After all, he had just come out yesterday, and had been planning to continue his closed door training after dinner today. There had only been a very small window of time, but Yale had just so happened to catch it.

It had to be said that it was quite the coincidence.

“I had some business that required me to pass nearby. When I saw Dragonblood Castle, I decided to come looking for you. I was just trying my luck. I didn’t expect you’d actually be available.” Yale laughed as well.

“Hey, what wine is this, anyhow?” Yale suddenly frowned as he looked at his wine cup.

Linley glanced at the wine bottle, shaking his head and laughing. “How should I know? My knowledge of wine isn’t as deep as yours. But I imagine the wine that the servants at my Dragonblood Castle prepared shouldn’t be too bad.”

Yale immediately began to laugh as well. “I know. You, you genius, spend all your time training. You don’t waste any time on wine. However, although this wine isn’t bad, it can’t be considered exquisite either. Right, in my interspatial ring, I have a bottle of fine wine. Third Bro, come, let’s taste it together.”

As he spoke, with a flip of his hand, Yale withdrew a small bottle of wine from within his interspatial ring.

“Such a small bottle?” Linley was somewhat surprised.

“This is something which a winery which our Dawson Conglomerate owns just finished refining. A single drop of this wine is a thousand times more valuable than its weight in gold. Come, have a taste.” Yale immediately poured Linley a cup, and then poured himself a cup as well.

Yale raised the cup, then frowned, intentionally saying ‘unhappily’, “Third Bro, what are you waiting for? Are you not going to give me face?”

“Haha, Yale, how would I, the Third Bro, dare to not give the Boss face?” Laughing, Linley raised the cup of wine. “Come, cheers.” As he spoke, without hesitating at all, Linley drank it all in one swig. But only after Linley drank did he realize that Yale hadn’t drank yet.

“Boss Yale, why didn’t you drink?” Linley laughed while berating. “You are going too far.”

Yale didn’t reply. He just put the wine cup back on the table. His smile had disappeared, and he just looked coldly and calmly at Linley.