Book 20, The Crown’s Riddle – Chapter 26, The Struggle

“Sovereigns, vent their anger?” Bebe, hearing Linley’s words, understood how grave this was.

“Boss, you are a Soul Mutate. There is no need for you to bring all of your divine clones to this battle.” Bebe sent mentally.

Linley, hearing this, immediately felt these words made sense. “That’s true. I’ll just bring my original body and divine wind clone. As for the other three divine clones, they will return to the Yulan Plane.” After becoming a Soul Mutate, each of Linley’s clones were roughly on par with each other. Aside from his original body, which had a stronger Will, his water, earth, and wind souls were on par, with his fire clone being weaker.

In addition, since he was a Soul Mutate, his divine wind clone could also, for example, use earth-type divine power to attack.

Linley only needed to bring his original body and one divine clone, and he would thus still be able to unleash his maximum power.

“Bebe, give me that godspark weapon you forged.” Linley sent mentally.

It must be understood that the other two talismans were hidden within that godspark weapon.

“Boss, it is best if I stay with you here.” Bebe sent. “If you were to take this godspark longstaff and leave, others would find it suspicious. After all, Boss, you aren’t skilled in using staff-type weapons. But if I hold the weapon, others won’t be suspicious.”

Linley hesitated momentarily, then agreed.

Prior to this, the plan was to have Bebe lead everyone away, but now his divine clones would naturally play that role. Whether or not Bebe led everyone away no longer matter.

“Fine, that’s what we’ll do! I’ll head out right now.”

Linley’s divine fire, divine water, and divine earth clones merged into one, leading Delia’s group towards the Jadefloat Continent’s teleportation array and returning to the Yulan continent.

As for Linley’s original body, divine wind clone, and Bebe, they departed from the Jadefloat Continent and made haste towards the Muja Continent!

The Jadefloat Continent was located in the eastern part of the Infernal Realm, while the Muja Continent was in the southern part! The distance between the two was far closer than the distance between the Redbud Continent and the Muja Continent.

Given Linley’s current level of power, the speed at which he closed in on the Muja Continent was extremely fast.

“Whoosh!”

A metallic lifeform pressed against the surface of the Starmist Sea, advancing at high speed. Two years had passed since leaving the Fiend Castle.

“Based on the intelligence report we received, eight years have passed since Brodie killed the Lotte tribe’s chief.” Linley frowned. “Eight years...where has Brodie fled to?”

“Boss, do you think Brodie is like you? He’s just a Highgod who fused a divine spark. He won’t be able to make it that far.” Bebe was extremely confident. “The Muja Continent is so vast. Based on the location of that tribe, Brodie definitely hadn’t flown from the Muja Continent yet.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. It’s...the teleportation arrays!” Linley said, worried. “The Lotte clan was roughly a billion kilometers away from one of the teleportation arrays of the Muja Continent. A billion kilometers, for a Highgod, even one traveling with his wife....eight years is more than enough to get there.”

“Boss, are you saying...?” Bebe was startled.

“Right. If he paid money to teleport to another plane, then things will be difficult.” Linley was worried about precisely this.

If he teleported away through the transportation arrays, especially to another one of the Divine Planes or Higher Planes, such as the Netherworld, he would be randomly assigned to one of the two teleportation arrays of the Netherworld.

“Uh...” Bebe frowned. “Boss, we heard this news a bit late. Without question, quite a few people learned of this before we did. The Muja Continent has quite a few experts as well, and their movements will have definitely been faster than ours. I imagine that they would have surrounded his region. Brodie wouldn’t be able to flee as easily as he wishes to.”

Linley nodded slightly.

“But Boss.” Bebe suddenly said with a frown. “I’ve discovered a problem. Although I saw Brodie in the scryer recording, I don’t know anything about his aura. However, if Brodie changes his appearance, even if he stands before us, we wouldn’t be able to recognize him.”

Linley let out a resigned laugh.

“I thought of this issue long ago. Indeed, this is the case; we’ve never seen him before! Thus, if he changes his appearance, we wouldn’t recognize him even if he stood right in front of us! But we can do a few things. First, we can go to the Lotte tribe and invite someone who lived there to accompany us. The Lotte tribesmen definitely should recognize Brodie and know his aura. Upon seeing Brodie himself, the tribesmen will definitely know who he is. Secondly, we can wait for others to catch Brodie first. After all, quite a few people are in pursuit of him, and all of them are quite cunning. They will surely have many methods by which they can spread out their web of influence to catch him.”

“That’s all we can do.” Bebe nodded.

By now, the metallic lifeform had already entered the Muja Continent region. Only, the Lotte tribe was in the center of the Muja Continent.

On the way over, Linley and Bebe travelled for a total of three years. They were now finally nearing one of the cities close to the Lotte tribe. The governor of the Fiend Castle of this city knew who Linley was, and began to immediately and warmly assist him.

“Mr. Linley, during this recent period of time, many experts have come in search of that Brodie. More than a hundred Six Star Fiends and Seven Star Fiends have come to visit our Fiend Castle alone. All of them went to invite members of the Lotte clan to assist, and they also set up their influence webs to search for him on a large scale.”

“Have they tracked down Brodie?” Linley asked.

“Three years ago, Brodie made a return trip to the Lotte tribe before departing once more.” The bald, silver-robed man said hurriedly.

“Three years ago?” Linley couldn’t help but feel a surge of delight.

A Highgod who had fused with a divine spark wouldn’t be able to travel too far in three years.

“Aside from that visit three years ago, did no one else find any trace of Brodie during these past three years?” Linley asked.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Some have. It was just two months ago. A Six Star Fiend found him, but that Brodie was too sly; he managed to escape.” The governor laughed while speaking.

Linley nodded slightly. Two months ago? It seemed as though Brodie shouldn’t have been able to run too far away.

“Tell me the exact location of the Lotte tribe.” Linley said.

“Mr. Linley, how about I personally accompany you on a visit to the Lotte tribe?” The governor was very friendly.

“That won’t be necessary.” Linley laughed calmly.

After learning the precise address, Linley and Bebe immediately made haste to the Lotte tribe.

In recent years, the Lotte tribe had been visited quite a few times by Six Star Fiends and Seven Star Fiends, who had invited tribesmen to accompany them for a very high price.

“All of them are standing on the mountain, hoping for an expert to take them in search of Brodie. They are all doing this for money.” A grim, black-faced old man glanced at the tribesmen who were standing atop the tall mountains. He couldn’t help but let out a cold snort.

“The payment those experts offered is exceedingly high. Generally speaking, ten million inkstones or more. Just recently, our chieftain himself received a hundred million inkstones in remuneration. Our chief’s divine clone immediately took this wealth to a city to live a peaceful life. If someone were to invite me and give me a hundred million inkstones, I would accept, even if it cost me a divine clone.” A round, chubby-faced, adorable-looking youth spoke out eagerly.

Indeed, the lives of many of the tribesmen of the Lotte tribe had changed dramatically.

After all, only a single divine clone was needed for going to recognize a person.

“In your dreams. Do you think that those experts truly don’t care about money?” The black-faced elder snickered. “The vast majority were only given ten million; only a single person was given a hundred million. Kid, you want someone to give you a hundred million? How laughable. Focus on your training. In the end, personal power speaks loudest!”

“Hmph.” The chubby-faced youth, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but let out a low snort, no longer speaking with the grim elder.

“Whoosh!”

A blur flashed past, and two figures appeared before them.

The round-faced youth and the grim elder were both badly startled. This speed was simply too fast. They carefully looked at the person in front of them. The newcomers were a brown-haired youth and an adorable, skinny youngster.

“You are...?” The grim elder couldn’t help but speak in surprise. He had never before seen someone as fast as these two.

Linley swept them with his gaze. Nodding, he said, “Do the two of you recognize Brodie?”

“I do, I do.” The round-faced youth immediately came to his senses and called out, “Brodie and I were neighbors for nearly a thousand years.”

“Don’t listen to him spout rubbish.” The grim elder said hurriedly. “That kid just lived with Brodie on the same mountain. Although Brodie and I weren’t neighbors, we often met. I would recognize him at a single glance.” Although earlier he acted as though everything was beneath him, when opportunity came knocking, the grim elder grew excited as well.

Laughing calmly, Linley nodded. “Fine, then. The two of you, follow me. On this trip, there will be many experts who will be fighting over the treasure, and I will be one of them. I might not be able to protect you two. How about this. If you follow me, each of you will receive five hundred million inkstones.”

“Five hundred million inkstones?”

The round-faced youth and the grim elder exchanged glances, then stared around themselves, quite cautious

“There is nobody nearby.” Linley laughed calmly.

“Hey, old fellow, we’re now on the same boat. Don’t go running around bragging wildly. Wait for us to enter the city, then brag.” The round-faced youth sent mentally.

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.” The grim elder said.

“Prepare to head out.” Linley immediately paid each person five hundred million inkstones. As Linley saw it, to give them five hundred million inkstones wasn’t that much, given that he was causing two Gods to face such danger. But to these low-level denizens of the Infernal Realm, upon acquiring five hundred million inkstones, they would be able to live an extremely comfortable life in the Infernal Realm in the future.

The black, sword-shaped metallic lifeform was advancing at high speed.

“So fast.” The round-faced youth and the grim elder were both quite stunned.

They had both released their divine clones and had them take their newfound wealth and keep it peacefully within the Lotte tribe. They were waiting for their opportunity; for the Lotte tribe’s metallic lifeform to head to a city. Only then would they leave together.

“Boss, according to the intelligence reports of the city, two months ago, Brodie appeared in this region.” Bebe said.

“I know.”

Linley had already completely extended his divine sense, and everything within eight million kilometers was now within Linley’s range of inspection.

“There are no powerful experts nearby.” Linley continued to hasten forward.

Given the speed at which Linley was able to control the metallic lifeform, in but a few days, he would be able to completely investigate the hundred million kilometer area surrounding this place. Given Brodie’s speed, in two months, he would at most be able to move a hundred million kilometers or so. The other Seven Star Fiends who relied on Sovereign power to investigate, however, would have a far smaller reach than Linley did.

In addition, given how fast Sovereign power leaked out, they wouldn’t be able to search for too long.

This made it that these people would find it hard to find Brodie!

However, Linley didn’t recognize Brodie either. What he needed to find was a place where many experts were gathering. That would be the place where Brodie was!

“Lord Chegwin, that Brodie fled into these Neville Mountains [Ne’wei’er].”

A dragon-shaped metallic lifeform flew through the skies. There were six individuals within it, with the leader being someone with long green robes, violet lips, and a closed eye-slit in the middle of his forehead. This devilish-looking man was the person who had just barely escaped dying in Linley’s hands not long ago; Chegwin!

In the Stellar Corridor of the Planar Battlefield, Linley had killed two people at one go, but Chegwin had been able to escape thanks to his two protective Sovereign artifacts.

“The two of you, lead one of the Lotte tribesmen inside to search for Brodie. No matter what, I must acquire that red caltrop diamond.”

“Yes, milord.” The two Seven Star Fiends bowed, then each led a group of people into the Neville Mountains. At the same time, they left behind a divine clone within the metallic lifeform, so as to be able to report back to Chegwin at all times.

Two months had passed. As time had gone on...Brodie, no matter how crafty he was, found that the area in which he could hide in was growing smaller and smaller. By now, the only place left for him was the Neville Mountains!

“Lord Chegwin, I have discovered Brodie. However, there is another Seven Star Fiend who has also located him.” One of the Seven Star Fiend’s divine clones said hurriedly.

“Let’s go.” Chegwin’s eyes lit up and he barked hurriedly.

He immediately collected his metallic lifeform. Chegwin didn’t even pay any attention to those Lotte tribesmen, instead immediately following the Seven Star Fiend’s divine clone to advance forward rapidly.

“Chegwin, where are you rushing towards?” A familiar voice rang out in Chegwin’s mind.

Chegwin turned his head, only to see four figures fly over.

“You...Linley?” Chegwin’s face changed dramatically.

“I discovered quite a few people moving in this direction. It seems as though that darkness-element Highgod being chased is Brodie.” Linley laughed calmly. As soon as his divine sense had located Chegwin, he had immediately hurried over. Given Chegwin’s power...he definitely had a chance to seize Brodie.

Unfortunately...

Linley had arrived!