Book 13, Gebados – Chapter 4, Ferocious

“Rumble...” Black clouds covered the skies, and rolling thunder shuddered forth.

A blurry human figure was slashing through the air, piercing through the thick, dark clouds while flying at high speed to the north. It was the frantic Linley. Both the Yulan Empire and the O’Brien Empire had suffered attacks. Linley naturally was worrying about his Baruch Empire as well.

“I hope, I hope Cena is fine.” Linley murmured.

The Baruch Empire’s imperial palace was the place where Emperor Cena, the Empress, and the others lived. Of course, the imperial palace of an Empire was protected by Saints, and the Saint on guard there was the second of the five Barker brothers, Ankh.

Linley’s fast-moving body suddenly halted, his gaze focused on two indistinct figures on the northern horizon.

One of them was tall and massive, while the other was also much larger than most people.

“Not good.” Linley could instantly recognize them. These two people were the transformed Supreme Warriors, Ankh and Cena. Cena was now a peak warrior of the ninth rank. After transforming, he was a Saint. As for Ankh, he had long ago reached the Saint level.

“Lord Linley!” Ankh and Cena, fleeing in a sad state, immediately called out upon seeing Linley.

Linley could tell that many of the scales of the transformed Dragonblood Warrior Cena had been ripped apart, with blood leaking everywhere. As for the transformed Undying Warrior Saint, Ankh, although he hadn’t been injured too badly, he clearly was in a sad state as well.

“Uncle!” As soon as Cena saw Linley, his tears immediately began to flow.

Linley felt extremely nervous.

Cena was an extremely stable person. For him to cry, the situation must be very severe.

The badly injured Cena calmed down slightly, now that he saw Linley. He returned to his human form. His trousers were ripped and torn, and his body was covered in blood and wounds. Linley immediately reached out and pressed his hand against Cena’s shoulder, allowing the Pearl of Life’s energy to fill Cena’s body.

Cena’s wounds quickly recovered.

“All dead. They are all dead.” Cena sobbed so hard his entire body shook. “Uncle, everyone in the entire imperial palace, aside from me and Uncle Ankh, they are all dead. My wives, my son, all dead!!!”

“All dead?” Linley couldn’t help but feel a surge of fury.

He had expected that the situation was grim, but it was even worse than he had feared.

“Those Deities, why did they massacre commoners? Can it be that they can only show off their power by massacring commoners? Cena’s son was named Kass [Ka’sa]...” Linley still remembered the scene from ten days ago.

It was the Yulan Festival. Cena had brought his wife and child to Dragonblood Castle to celebrate the holiday together.

Kass had only been seven years old at the time. Linley had been planning to wait when Kass grew a bit older, then take him and Arnold to activate the Dragonblood Warrior lineage in their veins. But...who would have imagined that Kass’s future would have ended before it even began.

“Bastards!!!” Linley couldn’t help but curse quietly.

Cena ground his teeth as well. “I really want to kill those people.”

Dragonblood Warriors had very low fertility rates.

For example, Linley only had Taylor and Sasha, the two twins. Wharton only had one child, Cena. Cena himself only had a single son. Although as the Emperor of an Empire, he had quite a few women, he only had this single son.”

“Uncle, you absolutely must help me get revenge. You must!” Cena’s face was covered in tears.

Linley nodded heavily.

“Ankh, what was the situation? Tell me in detail.” Linley looked solemnly at Ankh.

Ankh nodded and spoke. “Lord Linley. Not long ago, I was still in the imperial palace. But suddenly, I sensed a terrifying aura coming from above the imperial palace, so I immediately rushed out of the room. When I looked upwards, I saw...roughly a hundred experts flying in mid-air.”

“Nearly a hundred?” Linley’s heart shook slightly.

Originally, when Olivier had chopped open the Great Botha Levee with his sword, he had released thousands of experts, many of whom were far more powerful than Linley. Of course, most of the experts were Saints, but there were Demigods and Gods amongst their number, and even Highgods.

Hearing that nearly a hundred people had appeared in the air above the imperial palace of the imperial capital of the Baruch Empire, he knew that the leader of this gathering must at least be a Demigod, and perhaps even a full God!

“At that time, before I even had a chance to say a word, the leader, smiling, turned his gaze towards me. He immediately spoke to me using his divine sense. He said...‘Little fellow, go back and tell that Linley that from today onwards, this Baruch Empire now belongs to me, Ojwin [Ao’jia’wen].’” Ankh came to a pause.

Linley’s face sank.

“Ojwin?” Linley had never heard of this name before, but Linley could tell that this person clearly knew a great deal about him.

“And then?” Linley asked.

Ankh’s eyes held a hint of terror in them as he spoke. “And then, Ojwin just smiled. His entire body radiated out brilliant white light. It was like the holy light of the Radiant Church. The places of the imperial palace which were touched by that holy light were instantly vaporized. Many palace maids, attendants, and guards were turned directly to ash by that light. I immediately transformed, while Cena transformed as well. Under the power of that light, my defense managed to hold, but Cena was badly injured.”

Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart weighing heavily.

“The light which his body emanated was enough to badly injure Cena, who was at the Saint-level when Dragonformed?” Linley was very certain that ordinary Demigods definitely didn’t have this sort of power.

For a Demigod to kill a Saint, he would generally first have to utilize his Godrealm, or rely on his other abilities. That he was able to radiate light that covered the entire palace, yet still had such great power...most likely, the opponent was a full God. Even if he was a Demigod, he was definitely a peak Demigod.”

“Let’s go back for now.” Linley frowned.

Cena and Ankh nodded slightly, flying behind Linley as they returned towards Dragonblood Castle.

Dragonblood Castle.

Linley, Cena, and Ankh landed in the gate to Dragonblood Castle. Right now, there were quite a few people in the main hall. Everyone was chatting in soft voices. Dixie, Fain, and the others all felt extremely miserable...but the person with the most terrible look on his face was Olivier.

Olivier had learned from Fain that his little brother, Blumer, had died!

His little brother!

Their parents had died early on. He, Olivier, had personally brought up his little brother. His one and only family member! When Blumer entered the War God’s College, Olivier finally stopped worrying and began wholeheartedly devoting himself to his training. Who would have imagined...that such terrible news would come today!

Blumer was to Olivier what Wharton was to Linley!

His little brother had died. How could he not be furious?

“Linley, what’s the situation?” Delia immediately went to welcome them. Upon seeing Linley, Cena, and Ankh, everyone all went to welcome them as well.

Linley’s face was terrible to behold. He just shook his head.

“Cena, what happened?” Wharton’s face was filled with worry, and he immediately shouted the question.

“Bang!”

Cena immediately knelt down in front of Wharton, sobbing, “Father, everyone in the imperial palace, aside from myself and Uncle Ankh, are all dead. My wives died. Even little Kass died! They all died!” Cena deeply loved his son.

His only son!

“Little Kass died as well?” Wharton seemed to have been struck by a bolt of lightning. His face turned ashen. Nina, by Wharton’s side, also couldn’t believe it.

The youngest generation of the Baruch clan was just composed of Arnold and Kass, those two kids. Both Linley and Wharton deeply adored these little treasures. Arnold usually was with his father, Taylor, in Dragonblood Castle. As for Kass, he normally lived with his father and mother in the imperial palace.

“Big bro, we must get revenge.” Wharton looked at Linley.

But Linley was silent.

“Father, Uncle.” Cena was slowly beginning to recover from the grips of his rage and hate, returning to his normal clarity of thought. “The enemy who suddenly appeared...there were nearly a hundred of them flying in the air. The leader, ‘Ojwin’, is astonishingly powerful. We don’t have a good chance right now. For now, we must endure.”

Endure!

Linley couldn’t help but glance at Cena. After getting a vague sense of Ojwin’s power, Linley had no longer dared to easily engage in a battle against him.

After all...

Who knew how powerful these experts who fled from the Gebados Planar Prison were? It wouldn’t be so bad if they were Demigods, but if they were Gods...given his current level of power, if he went to fight, it would most likely be nothing more than certain death. He had already lost a child. But the living still had other family members!

Looking at Delia by his side, Linley then looked towards his own son, Taylor, as well as the distant family of Hillman, the children of the five Barker brothers, and more...in the entire main hall, there were many people present. All of them were Linley’s family and friends.

“I can’t take any risks.” Linley said to himself.

Fain, seated nearby, rose to his feet as well. He said seriously, “Too many experts suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Nearly a thousand people attacked our War God Mountain. But only one of them truly attacked; with a flip of his hand, he turned War God Mountain into rubble and ash! The difference in power between us is simply too great! Linley, you have to be cautious.”

“Linley.” Olivier looked at Linley as well. “Endure!”

Linley nodded slightly.

Right now, Olivier was enduring as well. He wanted to get revenge for Blumer. Perhaps to the others, Blumer wasn’t much, but to Olivier, Blumer was his only family in the world. But from Fain’s description, Olivier understood...

He wasn’t able to get revenge. At least, he currently wasn’t.

“In the coming days, everyone needs to stay at Dragonblood Castle. You are not to go out of it.” Linley looked at everyone as he gave his orders. “In another few months, when the War God and the others return, we will discuss things in detail.”

They had no other options. They had to endure.

Thousands of experts had fled from the Gebados Planar Prison, and only a small part of the thousands of experts had headed to the Arctic Icecap and left the Yulan Plane for the Four Higher Planes and the Seven Divine Planes. Many of the others had taken up residence in the Yulan continent.

The homeland of virtually all of the experts in the Gebados Planar Prison was the Yulan Plane.

Of course, long ago in the distant past of the Yulan Plane, there were Elemental lifeforms, Beastmen, etc...after all, only in relatively ‘recent’ days did the Yulan Plane become as it currently was. Now that these many experts had finally returned to their homeland, all of them had their own choies to make.

The weaker parties would perhaps take over a small area and become a local lord.

The powerful ones would directly annihilate the pre-existing imperial clans, and with their power backing them up, directly take over an Empire.

To the experts who had fled from the Gebados Planar Prison, the original ‘experts’ of the Yulan continent were nothing. They couldn’t fight back at all. The difference in power was simply too vast. Even the most powerful people on their side, Linley and Olivier, were forced to choose to endure, much less ordinary Saints.

The Eighteen Northern Duchies.

Dozens of experts were flying in the air above the Eighteen Northern Duchies. The leader of the group was a pair of twin brothers. Although they were twins, there were some slight differences; one of them had slightly darker skin, while the other had slightly lighter skin.

“Big brother, the Yulan Empire and the Baruch Empire have already been taken. Even someone as mighty as Lord Adkins was only able to take over that Empire known as O’Brien. It seems we two brothers will have to find another place to roost. This ‘Eighteen Northern Duchies’ area is a bit far off, but at least it’ll be a place for us two brothers to settle down.” The youngster with the whiter skin said.

His big brother nodded. “Let’s learn from Lord Adkins. First we’ll destroy that Frost Goddess Shrine. Afterwards, won’t all these Duchies obey us meekly?”

“If they don’t, we’ll kill them.” The younger brother said.

The two brothers exchanged glances, then burst out in laughter.

“The Eighteen Northern Duchies is our territory!” A violet-gold shadow suddenly flew over, transforming into a Violet-Gold Rat King. “And you even want to destroy the Frost Goddess Shrine to frighten others?” This Violet-Gold Rat King stared at the group of experts with its beady little black eyes.

The two brothers were startled. The group of experts behind them all began to laugh.

A Saint-level magical beast had come to block them?

“How amusing. Die.” The older brother said with a disdainful laugh. With a sweep of his arm...

“BOOM!”

In the air above those dozens of experts, a seemingly illusory giant black palm suddenly appeared. This enormous black palm covered the entire area, and those dozens of experts weren’t able to move at all. Those dozens of experts raised their head, staring in terror at that enormous black palm.

But that enormous black palm continued to descend upon them with no mercy.

“BOOM!” It was like striking tofu.

The dozens of experts, including those two brothers that had reached the Demigod level, were smashed into mincemeat without being able to resist at all.

“Saints and Deities who have chosen to remain in the Yulan continent, all of you, listen closely. If anyone causes trouble or commits slaughter in the area of the Eighteen Northern Duchies or the Forest of Darkness, I will definitely shatter their souls and disperse their spirits! Hmph. All of you had better know what’s best for you.”

An icy divine sense message instantly spread across the entire Yulan continent and echoed in the minds of all the Saints and Deities.

Many Deities who had been in the grips of wild exultation suddenly lost their smiles.

The gazes of virtually all the experts of the Yulan continent turned towards the direction of the Eighteen Northern Duchies.