Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 41, High Spirits

The cold wind howled, stabbing like knives as it swept across the vast, desolate earth. Sand and pebbles flew about wildly, and two blurry forms continued to advance.

Not too far away from them, up ahead, there was a large, twin-peaked mountain. The mountain was thousands of meters high, and the peak of the mountain was split, all the way from the top to the halfway point. From a distance, it looked just like the horns of a ram. In the maps of the Planar Battlefield, this mountain, the ‘Ramhorn Mountain’, was something of a landmark.

“Here we are!” Linley, dressed in a deep green robe, glanced about, his eyes flashing like lightning as he stared at every ‘suspicious’ looking part of Ramhorn Mountain.

“It seems there’s no cave here.” Bebe mumbled.

“Even if Reisgem is here, how could he allow others to tell just by looking? Let’s do a good investigation of the entire Ramhorn Mountain.” After speaking, Linley and Bebe transformed into two blurs, flying at high speed towards Ramhorn Mountain.

With Reihom present, even the most desolate of mountains could be transformed into a luxurious cave estate.

Within that estate inside Ramhorn Mountain, there was a large estate hall that seemed to have been formed by nature. Reihom, that big fellow, was currently seated in the meditative position in the corner of the hall, quietly training. The slow passage of time, to these supreme experts, was generally spent in training. As for Reisgem, he was seated on a chair, his legs resting atop a table which was covered with all sorts of fruits and foods.

“Montelo, that bastard.” Reisgem grabbed a haunch of leg meat from an unknown beast, giving it a savage bite. “He’s so cocky. All he has is strength in numbers.”

Reisgem, when thinking back to what happened three years ago, still was quite angry and discontent.

Reisgem turned to look at the meditating Reihom. He couldn’t help but call out, “Hey, Reihom, stop training like an idiot. There’s no need to train so frantically. It’s not so easy to reach the level of Paragon. Come over here and drink and chat with me.”

The towering, wargod-like Reihom opened his eyes, and it was as though corporeal light emanated forth.

“Yes.” Reihom rose to his feet, then moved to sit down across from Reisgem.

“I asked you to chat with me, so why aren’t you saying anything?” Reisgem couldn’t help but feel resigned. Seeing how Reihom was acting, though, all he could say was, “Alright. Ugh. If I’d known it’d be like this, I would’ve brought a few more people as well. Even if they aren’t able to help out in a fight, they’d help me relieve my boredom. Speaking of fighting...if I become a Paragon, I will definitely make it so that that Montelo would suffer so much that he would beg for death.”

“He...needs killing.” Reihom growled as well.

Reisgem immediately laughed. “Right. Needs killing!”

“Reisgem!” A clear voice rang out from the corridor up ahead. “Hey, Reisgem, we’re here!” A joyful sound echoed forth from the cave tunnel-corridor. And then, with a ‘bang’ sound, clearly the mountainous slab of rock that covered the tunnel was broken through.

Reisgem and Reihom reacted by instinct. “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” They hurriedly rose to their feet and glanced at each other, their eyes filled with surprise, delight, and laughter.

“Linley and Bebe came.” Reihom said.

“Haha...let’s go welcome them, quick.” Reisgem was the first to fly out, with Reihom close behind. Once the two arrived at their front courtyard, they saw that the gates to the courtyard had already been broken through. Linley, dressed in a deep green robe, and a black-robed Bebe were smiling, walking over shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Reisgem.” Bebe called out jubilantly.

“Ohoh, Bebe!” Reisgem excitedly charged over, grabbing Bebe into a bearhug. “We’re finally reunited again.”

“Linley.” Reihom revealed a hint of a smile towards Linley as well, and Linley laughed and nodded.

Reihom was currently transformed into a size of just two meters in height, comparable to Linley. As for Bebe and Reisgem, their heights were similar as well...the four members of this hunting squad, standing together, made for quite an interesting scene.

“His mommy!” Reisgem turned his head to look at Linley, then punched Linley on the chest and snorted, “Linley, kid, you worried me to death! When you were being attacked and chased by Oman, I wasn’t worried about Bebe; I was only worried about you! Oman wouldn’t be able to do anything to Bebe, but you were a different story. You are my one and only disciple, y’know? If you die, I’ll be very sad.”

Linley let out an awkward laugh.

Disciple?

“Hey, Reisgem, we’re bros!” Bebe slapped his arm around Reisgem’s shoulders and cocked his head. “We’re on the same level, so how can you consider yourself my Boss’ ‘master’?”

“Uh...” Reisgem was startled.

“Fine then.” Reisgem gave Linley a sideways look. “It was you who comprehended the profound secrets of my Amethyst Space on your own, and it was my mother who asked me to do what I did! You can be considered my mother’s disciple, then, which means you and I are on the same level as well.” As Reisgem spoke, he began to snicker. Hearing this, Linley couldn’t help but have a thought. “Hm? So Reisgem did what he did, teaching me while claiming to ‘punish’ me, was at the behest of the Sovereign. But why did the Sovereign make that decision? I’ve never before met the Redbud Sovereign.”

Bebe said, puzzled, “Hey, Reisgem, that was all arranged by your mother, the Sovereign?”

“Right. My mother even gave an important Soulstone to Linley.” Reisgem mumbled. “I really didn’t want to part with it.”

“Soulstone? You mean the black stone?” Linley hurriedly asked.

“Right.” Reisgem nodded very confidently. “I feel sick at heart just talking about it. That Soulstone...my mother has never given it to any outsider before. You were the first! Do you know? Even Sovereigns have asked for a Soulstone from my mother, but my mother wasn’t willing to give it to them.”

“Sovereigns wanted it?” Linley said, puzzled. “This is useful for Sovereigns?”

“It isn’t very useful for a Sovereign.” Reisgem shook his head. “But if it was given to a Highgod, it would be very useful!”

Bebe said in surprise, “Reisgem, if we compare this ‘Soulstone’ to the ‘Abyssal Fruit’ of the Netherworld, which one is better?”

“Abyssal Fruit?” Reisgem chortled. “The Abyssal Fruit truly is a treasure as well, but even ten Abyssal Fruits aren’t as valuable as a single Soulstone. Perhaps it has limited impact on Sovereigns, but...for Highgods, a Soulstone is a true treasure. Linley, don’t look at me that way. In the future, you’ll know how valuable that Soulstone is! Although in the countless planes of the universe, there are only two Amethyst Godbeasts, myself and my mother, my mother is the only person capable of giving someone a Soulstone.”

Linley and Bebe looked at each other.

From the sounds of it, this ‘Soulstone’ really was quite remarkable. Indeed, in battle, it was remarkably useful, but Linley didn’t yet see how it could be as amazing as Reisgem was claiming it to be.

“My mother probably gave one to you out of guilt. Otherwise, how could she possibly give it to you?” Reisgem said with a sigh.

“Guilt?” Linley asked hurriedly.

“Uh...” Reisgem covered his mouth, looked around, then hurriedly shook his head and said, “Don’t ask, just pretend I didn’t say anything. Don’t ask!”

Linley and Bebe were both rather astonished, but then Reisgem hurriedly changed the topic. He started to laugh. “Haha, Linley, Bebe, now that you are back, our chance for revenge has come! In the past three years, I’ve always wanted to find Montelo and gain revenge, but myself and Reihom, without anyone else, are far from being enough. If we went, we’d just be taken advantage of by them. But now that you are here, things are different.”

“What do you mean?” Bebe raised an eyebrow. “We’re going to find Montelo and get revenge?”

“Of course!” Reisgem said, rather angrily. “I’ve been thinking about revenge every moment of the past three years. Now that my chance has come, how can we not go?”

“Right. Let’s go kill Montelo and the others.” Reihom’s gaze was cold, containing powerful hatred.

Linley frowned, worried about one thing. “Reisgem, last time, we exchanged blows with them. There were eight of them and only four of us. In addition, that Oman who fought with me was particularly strong. Even Bebe, using his innate divine ability, wasn’t able to do anything to him. We’re going to get revenge?”

“Right. Oman is really hard to deal with.” Bebe said.

“Haha...” Reisgem began to laugh smugly. “If there are eight, there are eight. What’s to fear? Only two of the eight have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts. One is Oman, while the other is Chauswey [Xia’si’wei]. Although five of the other six have Sovereign artifacts, they don’t have soul-protecting Sovereign artifacts! Last time, we were attacked and caught off guard. This time, as long as we prepare, Bebe, you use your innate divine ability and deal with two of them from the start! Once your innate divine ability recovers, we’ll continue to exterminate them...hmph, it won’t be hard for us to deal with eight of them!”

“It’s a bit tough to deal with eight people.” Linley said with a frown.

“Unfortunately, I can’t use my innate divine ability nonstop.” Bebe said resignedly.

Linley nodded slightly. The same was true for him. Using an innate divine ability and a soul attack were different concepts!

Soul attacks only took up spiritual energy; even if you used it all up, you could use Golden Soul-Pearls to quickly replenish it. Or, by relying on Sovereign power, one could use the attack repeatedly without worrying that one’s own spiritual energy would be used up.

But innate divine abilities, aside from using up spiritual energy, also used up their innate energy.

For example, Linley’s usage of ‘Dragon Roar’ used up that ‘azure light’ which was his innate energy. Although the innate azure light replenished very quickly, it still needed time! Bebe was able to execute two ‘Godeater’ innate divine ability attacks in succession, but for the third time, he had to wait for a while. Only after his innate energy replenished to a certain degree was he able to use it again.

“Eight people. We have to dispose of two of them at the very start.” Reisgem immediately began to plan it out. “Bebe, once we encounter them, first deal with that silver-robed woman, Ranessa! Afterwards, then deal with Montelo! Once we deal with those two supreme experts, there are only two people capable of threatening us.”

Although the enemy side had eight experts, they only had four truly supreme experts, with the other four being slightly weaker, below-average commanders.

“Linley, Bebe, are the two of you tired? Should we rest for a bit, or head out right away?” Resigem asked.

“Let’s head out now.” Linley said with a laugh. He and Bebe had parted from Bluefire not too long ago, and they had been resting previously as well. They weren’t the slightest bit tired; on the contrary, they looked forward to this battle. “If this battle goes as smoothly as predicted, I’ll have enough commander badges by the end.”

According to Linley’s calculations, only one was needed.

“Fine, then. Let’s head out.” Reisgem’s eyes were shining, and he snorted. “That Montelo. I’ll teach him to be so smug. And so cocky! Hmph, he has no idea that we have a trump card like Bebe.”

Montelo, as far as the soul went, was on the same level as Reisgem. Even Highgod Paragons would have to work hard to kill them through the soul. But...upon encountering Bebe’s innate divine ability, he would definitely die.

“Let’s go.” Reihom, who whole-heartedly wanted to avenge his brother, and Linley, who wanted to acquire enough commander badges, as well as Bebe and Reisgem directly left the cave.

Upon leaving the cave, they were in extraordinarily high spirits. But three days later, Reisgem became rather depressed and resigned.

The desolate wilderness. A wild wind howled drearily.

Four figures were striding side by side. Reisgem said helplessly, “I thought that the Planar Battlefield wasn’t that large, but now, it seems, it’s huge. Finding Montelo within it is too hard.” The Planar Battlefield had a circumference of a million kilometers, and the restrictive power of it was a level higher than the Infernal Realm and Netherworld’s.

Even for Linley, to travel a million kilometers would take a day or two, and that was if they were walking in a straight line. They weren’t doing that; they were searching one place after another for Montelo.

“Even if we used Sovereign’s Might to search, it would take a few dozen years or even upwards of a hundred years to find Montelo.” Linley shook his head and sighed.

To find someone in the Planar Battlefield, one would have to rely on Sovereign’s Might and use it in the form of divine sense. By doing so, the range would be much greater.

“Right. There’s one other way.” Bebe mumbled.

“What way?” Reisgem said, startled. “What’s another way for us to find Montelo?”

“Actually, we don’t have to find them. They can find us; that’s fine as well.” Bebe said with a snicker. “We want to take revenge on Montelo, but he wants to make trouble for you as well. Reisgem, all you need to do is start a battle which causes a bit of a ruckus, and even use that innate divine ability of yours! Make it so that people ten thousand kilometers away will know that the person causing this ruckus was you, Reisgem! As long as Montelo isn’t too far away, he’ll soon hurry here to deal with you.

Reisgem’s eyes immediately lit up.

“That’s so simple! Why didn’t I think of it?!” Reisgem immediately began to laugh. “This time, I’m going to make it so that Montelo throws himself into my net!