Book 17, Indigo Prefecture – Chapter 31, A Battle of Sovereign’s Mights

The speed of this innate divine ability, ‘Soul Extinguisher’, was simply too fast. On the ground, that balding Elder Bulo stared coldly as his lips moved slightly. Behind him hovered that enormous illusion of a black serpent, which only had a single, solitary red eye, and the eye was staring fixedly at Linley.

A crack appeared in Elder Bulo’s forehead, between his eyebrows, and a translucent light instantly slashed through the skies, piercing into the range of the ‘Blackstone Space’, shooting directly into Linley’s body. The speed was so fast that Linley wasn’t able to dodge at all.

The innate divine ability of the Ashcroft clan – Soul Extinguisher!

“Elder Linley!” The surviving Six Star Fiends of the Azure Dragon clan, upon seeing this, were all stunned.

“Bastard.” The skinny, green-eyebrowed man ground his teeth as he stared at Linley, rage still burning in his heart. Just now, it had been Linley who had killed his older brother. “It’s your luck that I wasn’t able to kill you myself.”

From afar, as Emanuel saw this, his eyes lit up. “The Azure Dragon ring!”

Emanuel immediately flew towards Linley at high speed.

Within the limitless space in Linley’s mind, outside his sea of consciousness, there was that protective membrane of scales which was a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. This enormous membrane had a single tiny flaw, and that flaw was its weakness.

On the surface of the soul sea.

Beneath the seven-colored sword-shaped soul, a Linley dressed in a light green robe was standing. This was Linley’s ‘divine wind clone’. When battling, Linley only brought out a single one of his divine clones.

In the hands of his divine wind clone, there was a drop of azure water...water-type Sovereign’s Might.

“Let’s see if you can break through. If you can break through, then I’ll be forced to use this Sovereign’s Might.” Linley had been prepared long ago, and he had his divine wind clone carry that drop of Sovereign’s Might at all times. As for the divine wind clone, within the soul sea, it was standing right next to that sword-shaped soul.

Once danger came, his divine wind clone would immediately activate the drop of Sovereign’s Might and use it to protect the soul, as well as counter-attack.

“Crunch!”

That translucent ray of light shot out at incomparable speed, as straight as an arrow, piercing forward, drilling down with vicious precision against that semi-translucent scaled membrane. It was so fast and so vicious...that it was definitely the most powerful attack that Linley had ever encountered.

Crack!

Like an egg striking a stone, the ray of light struck directly atop the scaled membrane, and then it completely shattered apart.

“Eh? This is the Soul Extinguisher?” Linley was stunned. “How come it didn’t hurt me at all. Even that simple soul attack which Mosley had used was more dangerous to me than this innate divine ability.”

“It seems as though this attack doesn’t have any sentience at all.”

Indeed. Innate divine ability were very rigid, fixed types of attacks. For example, the ‘Godeater’ ability could only be used to devour divine sparks. If it succeeded, it succeeded. If it failed, it failed. The ‘Soul Extinguisher’ could only shoot forward, using raw, brute force to shatter anything that blocked in its path, then extinguished the enemy’s soul.

It was the same for Dylin and Tarosse’s innate divine abilities. The power was great, but the abilities were very rigid.

Once these innate divine abilities were activated, they would consume quite a bit of spiritual energy. You couldn’t use less spiritual energy if you wanted to. They were extremely rigid.

For soul attacks, sentience actually didn’t matter too much.

This was because generally speaking, if a Highgod had a ‘soul-protecting divine artifact’, it would protect all parts of the soul. For example, Bebe. His soul-protecting divine artifact protected every part of his soul. There were no ‘weak spots’...and thus, sentience didn’t matter.

One simply had to use raw power to break through. That was enough.

This was true for the ‘Soul Extinguisher’ as well. Unfortunately, what Linley possessed was a damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact. Aside from that flaw, the defensive strength of the other areas was exactly the same as a normal soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.

A Highgod, break through the defense of a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact with his attack?

In his dreams!

Thus...this technique by a supreme expert, ‘Bulo’, failed.

Linley stood there in the boundless skies, in the center of a sphere of earthen yellow light that was five hundred meters in diameter. On the ground, that balding, ancient Elder ‘Bulo’ raised his head to stare at Linley. That originally cold, sinister expression of his gradually changed into astonishment.

“Swoosh!” Emanuel flew towards Linley at high speed, laughing mockingly in his heart. “Those idiots. They killed Linley, but they didn’t immediately go take the spoils of battle. But how could they know that Linley had a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact?”

Emanuel was exceedingly delighted with himself.

“Linley, now that you are dead, this belongs to me.” Emanuel was very smug, but as he entered the region of the Blackstone Space, he couldn’t help but be puzzled. “Why hasn’t Linley’s Blackstone Space collapsed?”

If a person died, his space should collapse.

“Emanuel.” A cold, emotionless voice rang out.

“Uh?” Emanuel was stunned. He turned to look, and saw Linley’s dark golden eyes staring at him.

“Why have you come over? To help me out?” Linley stared at Emanuel, who had a look of astonishment on his face. Linley couldn’t help but laugh coldly in his heart, “This Emanuel has never given up on acquiring my Coiling Dragon ring.”

Emanuel immediately recovered from his shock. He couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly, “Elder Linley, you really are formidable. I...I saw that you were in a dangerous situation just now, Elder, and so I wanted to come help. But it seems, Elder, you don’t need my assistance. I’ll go deal with some other people. I’ll hand that old fellow down below to you. I trust, Elder Linley, that you’ll be able to easily deal with him.”

Emanuel immediately flew away, retreating.

“Despicable fellow!”

“Hmph!” Linley felt contempt in his heart, then turned to look at the bald fellow who had attacked him. “Easily deal with him? It would seem that it won’t be very easy to kill this old fellow.” Linley could had a sense of danger.

But Linley wasn’t afraid either.

He currently had three drops of Sovereign’s Might, and his divine wind clone was right there in his sea of consciousness, ready to activate it at any moment.

“Haha...”

Ancient-sounding laughter rang out from the mouth of the old, bald figure below him. The wrinkles on his face contorted like serpents. “Linley, it now seems that last time, when you killed Mosley and the other one, you were still hiding your power! Admirable, admirable!”

Linley stared at this old man, and as he did, one person’s biographical data floated up to his mind.

When in Bloodbath Gorge, the Azure Dragon clan had provided him with a very clear explanation of some of the particularly dangerous individuals of the eight great clans. The danger these individuals posed was vastly greater than that of ordinary Seven Star Fiends. They were comparable to the clan’s ‘trump cards’!

The old man in front him was one of them!

What Linley didn’t know was that his accomplishments in the previous battle had brought him to the attention of the various great clans, and they too had put his information into their list of ‘dangerous figures’.

“If my guess is correct, you should be Elder Bulo of the Ashcroft clan.” Linley said in a clear voice as he stood there, high up in the air in the middle of that enormous sphere, staring down at Bulo.

“Correct.”

Bulo smiled, but because his face was covered in wrinkles, this smile made him look all the more savage. “You were able to resist my innate divine ability, which means your soul defense is truly quite formidable. But you intentionally pretended that it was your weak spot. Hmph. Hmph. Admirable.”

That ancient voice echoed in the skies.

“However, today, I want to see how your physical defense is, in comparison to your ‘Genius Elder’, Blue!” The bald old man said, and then his entire body began to hiss as tiny, dense black scales appeared, covering his entire body. A fierce, slender serpentine tail emerged from behind him as well...

The Ashcroft clan descended from a supreme divine beast of the Netherworld, the ‘Nether Serpent’.

Their strength was no less than that of the Azure Dragon clan’s.

“Linley!” A furious bellow rang out, and a pale, ashen shadow tore through the skies, charging towards Linley.

Linley turned and saw that a seemingly blurry white figure was coming towards him. It was a savage-faced, green-eyebrowed man. The man immediately charged into the Blackstone Space, and as he did, Linley instantly changed the direction of the gravity.

Made it go downwards!

The skinny, green-eyebrowed man strove to resist that downwards pull, but his speed still slowed dramatically.

Right at this moment, he heard a furious shout. “Hales [Hei’er’si], leave Linley to me. You go kill the other one!”

The skinny, green-eyebrowed man turned to look at the already Serpentformed Bulo, then said in a hateful voice, “Fine, Elder Bulo, I’ll hand this Linley to you. You absolutely must kill him and avenge my elder brother!”

“Don’t worry.” Buler was completely confident.

The skinny, green-eyebrowed man, ‘Hales’, glared hatefully at Linley, then with a cold snort turned and charged towards the distant Emanuel. Emanuel had been watching this entire time. When he saw that Hales went to attack Linley as well, his joy was indescribable.

Who would have imagined that with but a single word from that bald old man, Hales had come to attack him instead.

“Motherf*cker...” With a low curse, Emanuel had no choice but to charge towards Hales.

Linley stared up in front, at the ‘freak’ located outside his Blackstone Space. Elder Bulo’s entire body was densely covered by the tiny black scales of the Nether Serpent. Only his chest still had a patch of large violet scales.

His slender serpentine tail quivered slightly, while in the center of Elder Bulo’s forehead, a single red eye had appeared from a crack.

“So this is the transformation of the Nether Serpent clan?” Linley was secretly astonished.

In truth, Linley’s Dragonform was just as bizarre as Bulo’s. He had multiple fierce spikes radiating out from his spine, while his elbows and knees had sharp spikes jutting out as well. Linley’s entire body looked akin to a human-shaped weapon.

Freak against freak!

“Linley, today, you absolutely will die.” Elder Bulo said in his hoarse voice. “Only, I want to see how long you can hold out for!”

“Bulo, today, you too must die. I, too, want to see how long you can hold out!” Linley said coldly. Linley had already made his plans in advance. First, he’d rely on his body to battle. If he wasn’t able to hold out...then even if he had to sacrifice a drop of Sovereign’s Might, he had to kill this Bulo.

An expert of this level was worth sacrificing a drop of Sovereign’s Might for.

“Bang!” Elder Bulo suddenly shot forward, charging directly into the Blackstone Space, and as he did, his speed couldn’t help decline.

“In my Blackstone Space, you will be at a great disadvantage.” Linley charged towards Elder Bulo.

But right at this moment...

Linley discovered, to his astonishment, that Elder Bulo’s entire body wriggled forward like a serpent, easily and agilely gliding forward. Even within the Blackstone Space, although Elder Bulo’s speed wasn’t that fast, he was still incredibly agile.

“How...how is this possible?” Linley was shocked.

This was the first time a person within his Blackstone Space had been affected so weakly.

“Haha...” Elder Bulo laughed wildly, and suddenly, he transformed into a black shadow, piercing through the skies and charging directly towards Linley. Linley, astonished, released a backhand palm blow, carrying within it the ‘Profound Truths of Velocity’ as he smashed towards that black shadow!

Two terrifying surges of energy collided.

“WHAP!”

A sound that was so clear and sharp, it caused space itself crack apart. Spatial ripples spread out in every direction, while Linley himself was sent flying backwards from the vibrations of the clash. His already Dragonformed right hand was uncontrollably trembling, and the palm of his hand was filled with a heart-boring pain.

“Your body’s strength really isn’t bad.” Elder Bulo snickered.

“Why the smugness?” Linley gritted his teeth. “In my Blackstone Space, although the effect on you isn’t great, it isn’t small either.”

Linley flashed forward like a bolt of lightning, while Elder Bulo didn’t show any weakness either, immediately moving forward to welcome him.

“Spiritual Chaos!” Linley instantly used his spiritual energy through the black stone to affect Elder Bulo, while at the same time, his twin fists struck out mercilessly...

Although Elder Bulo was able to resist the Spiritual Chaos technique, he still was slightly distracted.

“Whap!” “Bam!” “Bang!”

Linley’s fists, legs, and even his draconic tail struck viciously in succession against Elder Buler.

“Eh?” Linley discovered, to his astonishment, that Elder Bulo’s body was very slippery. It felt as though only half of the power of his blows had been applied. Elder Buler, with a somersault, flipped far away, then recovered in mid-air. He began to laugh from his rage. “Your soul really is quite formidable.”

“However...”

Elder Bulo’s body actually began to lengthen, as though he was transforming into a serpent, becoming soft and boneless as his serpentine tail extended as well. Elder Bulo, normally just the height of an ordinary person, had now transformed into a serpentine shape that was dozens of meters long.

“Haha...” Suddenly, from afar, a wild burst of laughter erupted, and a surge of terrifying power blasted out. Even Linley and Elder Bulo, in the midst of their battle, couldn’t help but be distracted and turn to look...

“You want to kill me? In your dreams!”

Emanuel’s entire body was encased in azure light, and every part of his body was emanating with that heart-shaking aura. As for that green-eyebrowed Hales, he was already dead, the shattered remnants of his corpse having already fallen to the ground.

“Emanuel used his Sovereign’s Might?” Linley was shocked.

“Sovereign’s Might?” Elder Bulo’s face changed dramatically as well.

Because the person who had used the Sovereign’s Might...belonged to the enemy!