Book 20, The Crown’s Riddle – Chapter 11, The Lord Prefect of Skymount

The black, sword-shaped metallic lifeform sped through the skies of the Infernal Realm.

Within the metallic lifeform, Linley’s group of five was seated around a table.

“Linley, the reason Diana and I are able to be together once more is all because of you. Thank you.” Olivier raised his cup of wine, then took a sip.

“Haha...” The nearby Bebe laughed loudly. “Olivier, on the way over to Skymount Prefecture, I never saw you truly smile a single time. Even if you did smile, it seemed quite forced. But now it seems...you are smiling so widely, your eyes have turned into slits.” Bebe teased him intentionally.

Olivier, hearing this, just laughed and glanced back at the nearby Diana. The two, husband and wife, glanced at each other. It was quite sweet.

Linley, seeing this, couldn’t help but laugh as well, but suddenly he then frowned.

“How irritating!” Bebe let out a dissatisfied mutter as well.

Olivier, who was in an excellent mood, just laughed. “Don’t worry about them. Our metallic lifeform is flying through the air, and the Infernal Realm is filled with countless bandits. It is very normal for them to use their divine sense to investigate us. Although they are rather irritating, there’s nothing we can do about it. What, are we supposed to go out and chastise them, one by one?”

Just now, a divine sense had swept through the metallic lifeform.

The Infernal Realm did indeed have countless bandits. Although this sort of thing happened quite often, each time one was scouted out through divine sense, one would still feel rather uncomfortable.

“Hmph, all those bandits dare to do is to scout us out. Upon discovering that we are Highgods, they no longer dare make trouble for us.” Bebe said disdainfully.

“Olivier.” Linley said. “How much farther are we from that place you spoke of?” This trip they were making was to the place where Olivier’s eldest son, Leya, had died. Her son had died, but Diana had yet to go see his grave. How could she feel at ease unless she went?

Olivier let out a sigh. “Soon. Given the speed at which this metallic lifeform that you control flies at, Linley, most likely in just five or six days, we will arrive. Linley...when the time is right, lessen the speed. I want to take a good look as well, as I need to verify the location. That place was in a mountain, after all.”

“Don’t worry. We were in a hurry to get to the Skymount Prefecture, but there’s no need for us to be in a hurry on our return.” Linley laughed calmly.

Linley had been planning to go to the Divine Light Plane, but after Beirut arranged for that message to be delivered to him, Linley temporarily gave up that notion.

Within the vast, boundless mountain range, there were two figures who were standing atop a mountain.

“A black, sword-shaped metallic lifeform, with five people inside, one a Saint. That’s right, the one that just flew past.” One of them, a man with short golden hair, stared towards the direction the metallic lifeform had flown. The bald youth next to him laughed, “This matches perfectly with the report that was sent to us by the communications squad earlier. However, this metallic lifeform flies quite fast. The last report came from tens of millions of kilometers away. It’s only been two short days since that report. On average, this means they are able to travel ten million kilometers or so each day.”

This speed truly was stunning.

After all, for most metallic lifeforms, travelling even a million kilometers a day was impressive.

What they didn’t know...was that this rate of ten million kilometers a day wasn’t even Linley going all out. In addition, this metallic lifeform was just an ordinary one, not a high level one.

“Given how fast it is moving, this metallic lifeform must be an extremely high level one. In addition, the controller of it must be extremely powerful.” The intelligence agent came to this conclusion.

While tracking Linley’s movements, they continued to immediately report back to their headquarters.

Their headquarters then transmitted this information to each of the other outposts.

Linley’s journey was being tracked.

A solitary, sickle-shaped black metallic lifeform was hovering in the air above a mountain range.

Within the metallic lifeform.

The black-haired Lord Prefect of Skymount Prefecture was standing at the front, staring through the translucent metal to the land ahead of him. Three people were standing respectfully by his side, one of whom was the white-browed man.

“Hm? Based on your calculations, didn’t you say that this group should be passing through this location?” The Lord Prefect said coldly.

One of the three men by his side, a silver-haired elder, bowed and said, “Lord Prefect. Based on the projected trajectory of this group, they should indeed pass by this location. In addition, not too long ago, a report came from an intelligence agent that the metallic lifeform was headed in this direction.”

“But I don’t see them.” The Lord Prefect gave him a sideways glance.

The silver-haired elder couldn’t help but tremble, then hurriedly said respectfully, “Lord Prefect, don’t worry. Even if they changed their arc slightly, given our many intelligence agents, we will definitely discover them.”

“Lord Prefect.” Right at this moment, the white-browed man suddenly spoke.

The Lord Prefect couldn’t help but glance at him, and the white-browed man immediately bowed and said, “Lord Prefect, I suddenly thought of something.”

“Speak!” The Lord Prefect said calmly.

“Lord Prefect...in the past, young master Bonin sent people to pursue and kill that ‘Olivier’ and his two children. Back then, the warriors that were sent out managed to encounter Olivier within a few hundred thousand kilometers of this location. In that battle, all of the warriors died. However, they also killed one of Olivier’s children! Now that Diana and Olivier are together once again, and given that Diana has never gone to visit her dead son, I think...she might perhaps be going now?” The white-browed man said.

Actually, after Linley and Olivier had killed Bonin, Diana had spoken aloud regarding her desire to go visit the place where her son had been killed. Although the white-browed man and the guards were fairly far away from Diana, they were still able to make out her words.

But the white-browed man also understood...that if he immediately provided this information to the Lord Prefect, and they went there to set up a trap, like a hunter waiting for a rabbit, and then Linley’s group changed their plans for some reason...the Lord Prefect would probably, in his rage, kill the white-browed man after waiting in vain!

For him to now bring it up, however, meant that he was rendering a great merit!

For the sake of his life, he had to choose to act this way.

“Oh?” The Lord Prefect, hearing this, immediately felt that this made sense.

When a mother’s son died, of course the mother would want to go see him one more time. This made perfect sense.

“Excellent.” The Lord Prefect nodded slightly towards the white-browed man. “Let us now go to the place where Diana’s son died.”

“Your subordinate will guide you.” The white-browed man said respectfully.

“Mm.”

The Lord Prefect was quite satisfied with the white-browed man’s cleverness. That sickle-shaped metallic lifeform instantly pierced through the skies, moving like a giant wind knife as it flew towards the direction of the location where Olivier had battled against his enemies.

This nameless mountain range was quite vast in scope, and its peaks and valleys extended off into the distance.

Actually, the majority of mountain ranges in the Infernal Realm were far larger than the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts of the Yulan continent, and they had far more experts as well. But of course, in the eyes of Linley and Olivier, those so-called ‘Demigods’ and ‘Gods’ truly weren’t worth mentioning.

Within one mountain gorge.

There was a lake of black-colored water, and at the sides of the lake, there was a tomb that was made from an enormous stone sculpture.

Olivier, Diana, and Deia were standing in front of this tomb. As for Linley and Bebe, they stood to one side.

“Leya, my son...” Diana couldn’t help but kneel down, her tears flowing. That cold, distant youth, Deia, began to cry as well. The death of his elder brother was clearly something that had been etched deep into his memories.

Linley and Bebe looked at each other. They could do nothing but remain silent.

From the reactions of this family of three, Linley could sense how they must have all been on very close terms with each other. Diana truly did love Olivier and her children. “Perhaps Diana didn’t like Bonin’s type of person, and preferred this sort of warm, gentle home.” Linley sighed to himself.

Olivier, Diana, Bonin...their story was indeed a tragedy.

Bonin’s most powerful divine clone had died, but he had sworn to destroy Diana.

“Given Olivier’s abilities, I don’t need to worry about him.”

Linley couldn’t help but walk over to the side of the lake, and Bebe followed him. Bebe sent mentally, a bitter look on his face, “Boss, I feel quite depressed as well, seeming how saddened Olivier’s family is.”

“Let’s just wait over here.” Linley sent back.

A long time later.

“Linley, we’re fine now.” Olivier led his wife and son over. “Apologies. We made you wait quite a long time. Let’s return to Indigo Prefecture.”

“Right.” Linley nodded.

And then, Linley frowned and glanced off into the distance. He saw an enormous sickle-shaped metallic lifeform fly over at high speed. It looked like a giant wind knife, and was flying straight towards this gorge, so fast that it caused wild air currents to erupt, sending quite a few trees and branches flying everywhere within the gorge.

“Who is it?” Bebe frowned.

“Looking for us?” Linley mused to himself.

Since they had flown into the gorge, clearly they people inside were looking for them.

At this moment, Linley willed his divine sense to spread outwards, sending it into that sickle-shaped metallic lifeform to investigate within. “Oh, four Highgods! One of them, that grim, black-haired elder...that should be the Lord Prefect of Skymount, Molde [Mo’er’de].”

Linley had previously received a book from Beirut regarding the experts of the various planes. Molde was listed in that book.

“Can it be that Molde has come to avenge his son?” Linley sighed mentally. He sighed at how Molde was not amenable to reason. Although Linley had yet to use his full power, the power Linley had displayed at Yustone castle, and then yet again when Linley had dealt with Bonin, was at a level beyond that which ordinary Lord Prefects might be capable of.

Molde should have predicted that Linley’s true power was greater than this. Why was it that he still dared to come?

Was Molde very powerful?

Based on what Linley knew, though, although Molde was an Emissary of the Bloodridge Sovereign, and in possession of a Sovereign artifact, in terms of power, he was a good deal weaker than the likes of Reisgem, Hemmers, and the like.

“Linley, what’s going on?” Olivier walked over, worried.

“It is the Lord Prefect of Skymount, Molde.” Linley said softly. “No need to worry.”

“Him?” Hearing this, Diana was startled, but when she thought about how powerful Linley was, she relaxed.

The enormous metallic lifeform that had been hovering roughly ten meters above them suddenly vanished, revealing four individuals hovering there in midair. The leader, that black-haired elder, had a cold, hard face, and eyes that flashed like knives. Just by standing there, he gave off the aura of being an enormous, growling beast, prepared to attack at any moment.

On his right arm, he was wearing that bracelet, which had those nine green pearls studded into it.

“Eh? Carrying a bracelet?” Linley rarely saw people wearing bracelets. After all, when experts battled, they would generally wear some sort of armor, so a bracelet wouldn’t be of much use. Still, there was still a very small minority of people who wore them...some, because of ancestral customs; others, because of local styles. Others just liked them.

In short, Linley was slightly surprised, but then he paid no more mind to it.

The Lord Prefect of Skymount, Molde, swept Linley’s group with his cold gaze. He looked like a mighty lion staring at five little sheep. The white-browed man behind Molde bowed respectfully and said, “Lord Prefect, of the five, that man with long white-black hair is Olivier. It was he who killed young master Bonin. The most powerful person in that group, however, is that brown-haired man. It was he who bound the young master, giving Olivier the chance to kill him. I don’t know his name.”

Lord Prefect Molde of Skymount gave Olivier a glance, then turned to stare at Linley.

“Do you know that Bonin is my son?” Molde growled.

“I know.” Linley said calmly.

Molde’s aura was astonishing, but to Linley, he was like a small dog yipping and baring its fangs at a giant.

“Hey, you are that Lord Prefect ‘Molde’ of Skymount?” Bebe began to laugh. “We spanked the young one, and now the old one comes! The Boss and I are about to go back right now. If you don’t plan on doing anything, then beat it. If you want to get revenge for your son, then stop wasting our time and attack already. After dealing with you, we’ll need to hurry home. We’re in a rush!”

“Impudence!” Molde was focused on Linley; he held Bebe in no regard. But these words by Bebe instantly enraged him.

“Rumble...”

The air seemed to explode as Molde charged leisurely towards Bebe, his right hand forming a claw which slashed through the air, easily ripping space itself apart.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

“Crackle...” The claw howled through the air as it struck.

Linley frowned slightly. Instantly, a blurry, indistinct figure appeared in front of Molde. At the same time, with a ‘bang!’ sound, Molde’s head was viciously kicked, and Molde himself was sent flying away by this kick, moving like a meteor as he smashed into the side of the mountain, several tens of meters away.

With a booming sound, a giant spiderweb of cracks appeared on the mountain side, with a large, human-shaped hole at the center of the spiderweb.