Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 7, To Choose

Linley walked in the middle of this changing castle, exceedingly worried. “This damn place is constantly changing. There’s no way I can find the exit. In addition, there are enemies attacking and ambushing from within!” Linley clearly remembered seeing the corpse of a Fiend earlier.

Upon seeing the corpse, Linley immediately understood that this ancient castle wasn’t just meant for trapping people.

There were people lying in ambush here!

Actually, Linley should have understood this long ago. Only, he didn’t dare to think about it. “Ambush? Assassinate? Bebe and I are a bit better off. I have a soul protecting Sovereign artifact, while Bebe has treasures bestowed upon him by Lord Beirut. He shouldn’t have any problems staying alive. But Delia, she...alas. I shouldn’t have been in such a rush. I should have let Delia reach the Highgod level first before heading out.” Linley was filled with regret.

“If Delia were to be killed...”

Thinking of this, Linley grew even more worried.

In truth, Delia trained in the Elemental Laws of the Wind, and had already mastered six of the profound mysteries, and had a Deathgod Golem with her. Although her abilities at staying alive were inferior to that of Linley and Bebe’s, she still had some degree of ability.

Only, Linley himself remained worried.

“The enemy is definitely extraordinary, to be able to create this bizarre castle. Everything else aside, Delia hasn’t reached the Highgod level yet.” Linley carefully yet speedily moved through the castle, hoping that he would run into Delia within.

But suddenly...

“Huh?”

Linley reached an opening, then out of the corner of his eye, saw someone hovering in mid-air.

“The black-horned elder?” Linley immediately recognized him. That black-haired elder clearly had seen Linley as well, as he looked over towards him.

But right at this moment, the gentle wind suddenly took solid form, transforming into a green-robed elder. The green-robed elder had a hint of a smile on his face. He glanced sideways at Linley, not worried at all. “A God actually ran here as well.”

To the green-robed elder, a God was someone he could kill in an instant. Given his status and stature, he couldn’t be bothered to care about Linley at all.”

“You are...?” The black-horned elder saw the green-robed elder appear out of thin area, and his face changed dramatically.

The green-robed elder glanced calmly at the black-horned elder before him. “You truly are bold. For you and your brother to abscond with the enormous fortune of the Boyd clan is one thing, but...I didn’t expect that after so many years, you two would dare to turn back. What, you wish to return to the Jadefloat Continent?”

The black-horned elder’s face changed, and then he chuckled in a ‘relieved’ manner. “That year, my big brother and I fled from the Jadefloat Continent. We thought that no one had detected us. This time, we only invited so many Fiends out of an abundance of caution, but I wouldn’t have expected that you would come!”

The green-robed elder let out a disdainful snort.

“You want to acquire the fortune of the Boyd clan? Haha...”

The black-horned elder suddenly raised his head and laughed loudly, then stared at the green-robed elder. “Keep dreaming. For us two brothers to dare come on this trip means that we naturally came fully prepared. Even if you kill both of us, you won’t be able to obtain the treasures of the Boyd clan! You...will never get it!”

The green-robed elder’s face suddenly sank.

He had followed his student, Inigo, from the Jadefloat Continent through the Starmist Seas to the Redbud Continent. It was all for the sake of the fortune of the Boyd clan.

“Hmph. Once I kill you, I’ll know.” The green-robed elder, with a wave of his hand, summoned forth a longsword that looked like a silver thread. This was a flexible sword, but compared to Linley’s ‘Bloodviolet’ sword, it was even thinner and even lighter.

“Prepare to die.” The green-robed elder, confident of his status, would usually notify his opponent before killing them.

As soon as the black-horned elder had seen the Castle of the Winds, he had understood how powerful the opponent was.

Although he himself was also a Highgod, compared to the person in front of him, the difference was considerable.

“You want to kill me? I will make you pay a price.” The black-horned elder had already made up his mind to die here. Bellowing, he made a black heavy sword appear in his hands. Instantly, the air around the black heavy sword began to twist, and a black light shot out in every direction.

Linley, seeing these two Highgods about to battle, couldn’t help but feel startled. “I’d better run. If I get involved in this, I’ll be finished!” Linley didn’t hesitate at all, immediately running towards the direction of one of the other corridors.

Although he was moving quickly...

“Bang!”

The first clash by these two Highgods caused the black-horned elder’s body to be sent flying towards Linley’s direction at high speed.

“Huh?” Linley couldn’t help but feel stunned. Raising his head, he watched as the body flew towards him.

But with a flip, the black-horned elder righted himself, standing up. Just now, one of the divine clones of the black-horned elder was killed.

“You want to kill me?” The black-horned elder was now fully aware of how great their difference in power was. One of his clones had just been destroyed, and he now only had this one left. “Clan master, your old servant didn’t let you down. Only, in the future, your old servant won’t be able to toil on behalf of the young master any longer.”

“Bang!”

The black-horned elder’s long blade, carrying an earth-splitting force, transformed into a black blade shadow, causing space to distort and leaving behind nothing more than a faint blur.

“Haha...you just had one of your divine clones die. I want to see how many you have left!” The green-robed elder laughed wildly, and then Linley only noticed a hint of a beautiful silver flash. Wherever those rays of silver light flashed past, space itself began to form extremely tiny cracks.

Linley was shocked.

“Cracks? Cracks in space in the Infernal Realm?” Linley found it hard to believe.

“Boom!”

The black-horned elder was only able to block a single silver ray of light; afterwards, his entire body was criss-crossed by the multiple remaining rays of silver light. His body was chopped into multiple parts which fell down from the skies. In particular, the interspatial ring on his left hand was sent flying downwards.

At this moment...

“Interspatial ring?” Linley had a thought. He absolutely could collect this interspatial ring for himself.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Can I take it?”

The black-horned elder’s interspatial ring definitely had an enormous fortune within it. Linley was certain of this. As one of their employers, a person capable of inviting a Six Star Fiend, the amount of wealth this black-horned elder had was definitely staggering. Only, was he able to collect it?

Linley looked at the distant green-robed elder, then without hesitating at all, immediately fled.

“I wouldn’t be alive to spend it.”

Linley fled at high speed, quickly traversing thousands of meters, disappearing from the green-robed elder’s field of vision. Only, every location within this castle was under the control of this green-robed elder. Naturally, he knew exactly where Linley had gone. The green-robed elder chuckled. “This God didn’t let greed cloud his judgment.”

If Linley had stolen that interspatial ring, even if the green-robed elder originally would have had disdained killing Linley, a God, the green-robed elder would have personally intervened to retrieve the ring. At that point, Linley would have had no chance at all.

“What does he have inside?” The green-robed elder landed, then collected his interspatial ring while binding it with blood.

The green-robed elder’s face changed greatly. “Hrm? Only thirty billion inkstones. How is that possible? As little as that?” The green-robed elder couldn’t believe it. “Impossible. The fortune of the Boyd clan was built up over countless years. Even the tiniest part of it would exceed this amount.”

Perhaps to Linley or to ordinary Highgods, thirty billion inkstones was an enormous fortune.

But...

To the green-robed elder and other such experts, it was nothing more than a small sum of money. If you were to compare these thirty billion inkstones to the entire fortune of the Boyd clan...that would be like a single hair on the bodies of nine bulls! It must be understood...that within a city, a single hotel was worth tens of billions of inkstones.

How could the fortune of the Boyd clan be compared to a single hotel?

“No. There’s also that white-horned elder.” The green-robed elder’s eyes were cold. “The wealth is definitely on him.” But when he sensed the location of that white-horned elder, his face changed dramatically. “Not good...that Fiend is about to draw close to the white-horned elder.”

Learmonth’s face was cold and callous. Wielding his longsword, he walked calmly through the castle as though he was just talking a stroll in his own garden. When he encountered any yellow sand walls, he would still walk straight through them, completely ignoring the walls in front of him.

His sword would flash!

“Crunch!”

The yellow sand walls were all directly destroyed. Learmonth himself moved like an illusion, passing through the empty hole, while the yellow sand wall immediately recovered afterwards.

“Hmph.” Learmonth turned to look coldly towards the side.

“Swish!” Like a bolt lightning, his sword chopped out towards the distant yellow sand wall. Instantly, fresh blood exploded out from the yellow sand wall, and a corpse fell down from within the wall. The eyes of the corpse were filled with shock, as though he couldn’t believe that Learmonth had noticed him.

Learmonth continued forward.

Nobody could block his advance!

“I know you can hear me.” Learmonth said while walking. “You might as well come out. Do you believe that I am unable to break through your spatial castle?”

“Crunch!”

Yet another sword chop flashed out against the impediment in front of him, and Learmonth’s body swayed yet again, appearing on the opposite side of that way.

“Ah, Mr. Learmonth.” The white-horned elder stared in astonishment and joy at Learmonth, whose face revealed a rare hint of a smile.

“I was a step behind.” The green-robed elder was hidden only a few hundred meters away from the white-horned elder, in a room. “This one named Learmonth? His attack power is truly frightening. With but a casual attack, he is able to generate such power. If he were to truly explode forth...”

The green-robed elder had extraordinary experience. Of course he could tell that Learmonth had yet to use his ultimate attack.

Generally speaking, extremely powerful experts like them would stake their lives on their ultimate attacks, which usually consumed a great deal of spiritual energy and divine power. Thus, unless a critical moment came, these ultimate experts generally wouldn’t want to use their ultimate attacks.

“That damnable fellow.” The green-robed elder immediately came to a decision. “Right now, all I can do is find more Highgods and have them attack the white-horned elder, while I personally go entangle that Learmonth for a while.”

The green-robed elder understood that there was no way the other Highgods could entangle Learmonth.

But to kill the white-horned elder, only a few Highgods needed to join forces and sneak attack him. That was all that would be needed.

.............................

As the battles continued unabated within the castle of sand, the number of Highgods grew lower and lower.

Salomon stood calmly in mid-air.

“I hope Nisse is fine.” Salomon was still worried in his heart.

“Swoosh!”

Suddenly, from the nearby wall, two figures appeared who shot straight towards Salomon, their wild releases of energy causing space to shudder.

“Hmph!” Salomon, with a flip of his hand, emitted multiple rays of black light. Those two figures let out miserable screams. One of them suddenly smashed against the floor, never to move again, while the other fled into the yellow sand walls, disappearing.

“Want to kill me?” Salomon chuckled.

The battles continued, and one Highgod Fiend after another fell.

“Aside from that terrifying Fiend, there are four Highgods that are hard to deal with.” Inigo heard the reports from his subordinates and began to frown. He didn’t know that those four extremely hard to deal with Highgod Fiends were the Edwards brothers and Salomon!

Star rank didn’t necessarily, completely testify as to one’s strength.

For example, a powerful Fiend might only be a One Star Fiend as he might have just taken the Fiend trials. But that didn’t mean his power was only at the one star level.

Salomon was a good example. On the surface, he was only a Four Star Fiend. But his true power?

Not all Fiends could be judged by their star rank.

“No need to deal with those Highgods. There’s no profit from them.” Inigo gave the order. His real goal was just those two old fellows. There was no need to kill all of the Highgod Fiends. “For now, no need to join forces. Attack as you please. Deal with all of the God-level Fiends.”

For Highgods to kill Gods, naturally there was no need for them to join forces.

“Yes, young master!”

The Highgods disappeared into the yellow sand.

With this order being given, the God-level Fiends within the castle fell into grave danger, including Linley, Bebe, Delia, Nisse...

A crisis had descended!

Linley carefully walked through the yellow sand, his hands, legs, neck, and head all covered with an earthen yellow membrane. He looked as though he were a metal warrior. Linley had already used his ‘Pulseguard Armor’ to protect every part of his body.

“Swoosh!” An explosive sword shadow suddenly descended upon Linley from the side!

Linley only felt as though suddenly, he had transformed into a tiny boat that was currently being rocked by the wild waves of the ocean.