Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

The Baruch Empire’s southwest area. Within the valley amongst a chain of mountains.

This was an important base for the Dawson Conglomerate. In the past, there had been many people stationed here, but ever since Linley had killed the Grand Warlock, Yale naturally had stopped the practice of shipping slaves to this location, and thus the number of people stationed here was lowered as well. These days, there were only a few thousand people present, mostly responsible for trading activities.

Night had descended.

The Dawson Conglomerate employees who worked here now had much easier lives. At night, many men would get together to drink deep into the night, with them only wobbling home in small groups of two and three.

“During the past year, life has gotten so much better.” A muscular young man, reeking of wine, said loudly. “A few years ago, in this valley of Mt. Swallow, each day was like hell. Damn…”

“Right. Back then, I didn’t even dare to go out at night. Too many people died. I don’t even know how many corpses I had to dispose of.” A middle-aged man with curly golden hair, thinking back to the affairs of the past, couldn’t help but sigh with amazement.

Those days, over ten thousand corpses had to be shipped away on a daily basis.

The employees who lived and worked at this branch of the Dawson Conglomerate within the valley always felt as though they were at the psychological breaking point.

The three men, walking shoulder to shoulder, suddenly realized to their astonishment that they could no longer move. The space around them seemed to have solidified, causing them to be unable to move at all. They were so frightened that they wanted to open their mouths, but they could not. The three of them all stared with round eyes, terrified.

From within the darkness a human figure wrapped in a black robe appeared before them.

Seeing this mysterious black robed man, all three felt their hearts shake. They somewhat understood…that the reason they couldn’t move and couldn’t even open their mouths was the result of the actions of this mysterious man in black.

“How long ago did this canyon cease trading in slaves?” The black-robed man’s low, gravelly voice rang out. “Speak, but don’t shout too loudly. Nobody will be able to hear you. In addition, if someone shouts loudly and irritates me, I’ll kill him.”

He swept the three men with his dark, cold gaze. The three men’s forehead and back were utterly drenched with sweat. To their astonishment, they found that their mouths could move again.

“Speak.” The mysterious black robed man said.

“Half a year ago.” That golden-haired, middle aged man was somewhat more mentally disciplined. The other two were scared speechless.

“Half a year ago. Half a year ago, did something happen? Such as a battle?” The black robed man asked.

“Yes, there was a major battle.” The muscular youth came to his senses as well. He hurriedly said, “Half a year ago, late at night, two Saints battled, causing the ground of our entire valley to shake, and even many buildings were damaged.”

“The ground shook?”

The mysterious black robed man seemed to have thought of something. “Continue. Describe what happened that night in detail to me.”

The youngster with inch long short hair added, “We were all present. At first, we didn’t notice the battle, only that the ground was shaking, followed by buildings exploding. We were so frightened that we ran outside, at which point we discovered that in the air above the valley, two experts were battling. One was a Dragonblood Warrior, while the other was a black robed person. Oh, right. He wielded a black sickle. That sickle was so enormous, at least ten meters long.”

“Right. It was very long, and then we saw it transform into nine of those black sickles.” The muscular youngster added.

They didn’t know that those sickles were created from the Grand Warlock’s spiritual energy, because at that time, it was dark. Although there were torches on the ground, they were only just barely able to make out the scene. They did, however, clearly see the enormous black sickle formed from spiritual energy.

“Sickle?” The mysterious black robed man was silent for a while.

“And the results?” The mysterious black man continued.

“The battle happened too fast. We only saw that the black robed man was turned into a pile of mincemeat, and then the Dragonblood Warrior fell to the ground. It was the Dragonblood Warrior who won. Our Lord Chairman then ordered us to go back to our homes, and then the Lord Chairman stayed with the Dragonblood Warrior for a very long time.” The muscular youth stuttered.

The mysterious black robed man immediately asked, “That Dragonblood Warrior, was his name Linley?”

“Right. It should have been Lord Linley. Lord Linley is on very good terms with our Lord Chairman.” The golden-haired, middle-aged man said.

“Very good.” The mysterious black robed man nodded in satisfaction. “I am very satisfied with your answers.”

The three men let out secret sighs of relief.

“Crackle…” A very soft sound. The bodies of the three men instantly crumbled into three piles of dust.

“He really did die.” The mysterious black robed man was extremely angry. “He actually died, and before he finished refining the Gold Soul-Pearl he promised me.” The black-robed man was Beaumont, whom the Grand Warlock had promised to help fuse a Gold Soul-Pearl for.

“Linley?”

Beaumont’s eyes were cold. “I didn’t expect that in such a short time period, he was able to become a Deity, and that he even managed to survive in the face of the Grand Warlock’s ultimate attack.”

Beaumont knew very well that the Grand Warlock’s ultimate attack was a self-damaging attack that would devastate the opponent. For an expert who had just reached the Deity level to be able to withstand it caused Beaumont to feel shocked.

“Indeed, he lives up to his reputation as being an ultimate genius of the Yulan continent.” Beaumont’s heart was actually filled with hatred. The Gold Soul-Pearl was very important to him. The benefits of absorbing one were simply too great. Not only would one’s soul be strengthened, one’s future rate of improvement in training would also be sped up dramatically.

“Hrmph. Linley.”

Beaumont muttered Linley’s name, then with a cold laugh, disappeared into a black ray of light, disappearing into the horizon.

Yulan calendar, year 10040. December 29th. The previous night, there had been a great blizzard. By daybreak, the snowfall stopped, and the entire Dragonblood Castle was now transformed into a world of snow. Under the light of the sun, the accumulated snow was as brilliant as a gemstone. Even Delia temporarily paused her training.

After all, the Yulan Festival was about to arrive. Everyone would get together over the next few days.

Outside Dragonblood Castle.

A middle aged man with a head of neat, short silver hair, wearing a thick white robe, walked through the snow to stand in front of Dragonblood Castle. This middle aged man’s face had a hint of a smile on it, but his eyes looked like black jade.

“Stop, citizen.” The Dragonblood Castle’s guards instantly called out.

The middle-aged man glanced at the guards with a smile. “Go make a report that I have come to meet with the master of Dragonblood Castle, Linley.”

The faces of the two guards outside Dragonblood Castle changed. In the Baruch Empire, the name ‘Linley’ was inviolable, like the name of a god. Even if someone were to refer to him by name, they would still respectfully refer to him as ‘Lord Linley’. There were very few people who dared to refer to Linley by his name directly.

The two guards were just about to shout in rebuke, but suddenly…

“Let him in.” Linley’s voice rang out in the minds of these two guards.

The two guards were both shocked. Linley had actually mentally spoken to them for the sake of this person.

“Please, come in.” Although puzzled, the two guards still allowed this person to enter.

Within the rear flower garden, Linley and Delia were currently seated together, enjoy the snowy scene and the sunlight.

“Delia, soon, an important guest is going to be coming.” Linley smiled as he looked at Delia. Delia was somewhat surprised. “An important guest? Who? How do you know?”

“That guest directly used his divine sense to contact me.” Linley shook his head with a laugh.

“Are you saying he is a Deity?” Hearing the words ‘divine sense’, Delia instantly understood. She seemed very shocked. “Linley, which Deity? The War God and the others are still in the Necropolis of the Gods, right? They won’t be back for three more years.”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

At present, Linley was in a fine mood. “I didn’t expect that he would so politely ask the guards outside to send a message. How amusing.”

Generally speaking, the likes of Desri and Tulily would fly directly into Dragonblood Castle. If a Deity wanted to meet with Linley, they could simply fly directly in. There was no need to insist on the gate guards to make a report.

Soon afterwards, the Deity walked into the rear flower garden.

“Mr. Linley, greetings.” The silver haired middle-aged man said with a smile. “My name is Muba.”

“Mr. Muba, I’ve heard of your name long ago.” Linley spoke. The god of that mysterious religion was named ‘Muba’. Earlier, when he had just arrived at the gate to Dragonblood Castle, Muba had directly greeted Linley with his divine sense.

Although Linley was surprised, he still warmly welcomed the man.

After all, this person had come in an extremely polite manner.

Hearing Linley say this, Muba understood that this founding of a religion was probably already known to Linley. He began to laugh as well. “I truly am sorry. Without getting your permission, Mr. Linley, I started to proselytize in your Empire.”

Towards this, Linley didn’t openly express if he was upset or not.

“Mr. Muba, please sit.” Linley pointed at a nearby stone bench.

Laughing merrily, Muba sat down. Muba’s face was perpetually sunny and smiling. Even his gaze made a person think of the nourishing spring wind. This sort of person really was the sort which few would think of as an enemy.

“Might I ask what the purpose of this visit is, Mr. Muba?” Linley was the first to speak.

Muba laughed, “Actually, the first reason I came is to apologize. Before this, I knew that you, Mr. Linley, were a Saint. As I saw it, you shouldn’t care too much about faith energy. At that time, when I erected my religion, it actually didn’t affect you very much, Mr. Linley. But now that you have become a Deity, Mr. Linley, I feel rather embarrassed.”

Linley and Delia were both very surprised.

He had come to apologize, just for that?

Could it be that a Deity was so courteous and pleasant?

“Mr. Muba, since you explain it so courteously, of course I won’t be upset about it.” Linley said with a calm laugh.

Muba quickly continued, “Mr. Linley, don’t worry. In a short period of time, I will resolve this issue of proselytizing. At least, within your Baruch Empire, you won’t find my religion again.” Muba’s attitude was very sincere.

Linley actually didn’t know what to say.

“Mr. Linley, I imagine that as you have only just reached the Deity level, there are a few things you don’t know yet. I’ll tell you a few common facts as a form of apology.” Muba said sincerely.

Given how he was acting, Linley found it hard to hold a grudge against this Muba.

Only, in his heart, Linley still felt puzzled…this Muba was perhaps being a bit too courteous. Linley had just reached the Deity-level. There was no need for Muba to act in such a way.

“It is true that I have just reached the Deity level. I’d glady welcome some advice from you, Mr. Muba.” Linley said.

Muba nodded slightly. “Upon reaching the Deity-level, we can all be considered gods, now. To us, both our divine spark and our soul are very important. The divine spark is unbreakably strong, but the soul is very weak…I imagine that you, Linley, have also sensed the benefits of faith energy by now.”

Linley nodded slightly.

As soon as he had become a Deity, Linley had absorbed just a bit of faith energy. At that time, Linley didn’t sense much, but after the past half year, Linley could clearly sense that the faith energy was slowly fusing with his own spiritual energy, while at the same time forming a protective layer around his soul. But of course, to Linley, it seemed that this protective layer was extremely weak.

“Faith energy is exceedingly beneficial to the soul’s growth. At the same time, it will also protect the soul. When faith energy reaches an extremely powerful level, faith energy’s protection alone will be capable of blocking many soul attacks.” Muba sighed.

Linley nodded slightly.

After all, he had only absorbed half a year’s worth of faith energy. The likes of the War God, who had absorbed five thousand years of faith energy, would have a far denser, deeper reservoir of faith energy than himself. The likes of Sovereigns, who absorbed faith energy from countless planes, had been doing so for trillions of years.

The amount of faith energy they had was surely at an astonishing level.

“Faith energy is extremely beneficial to us. You understand this as well. Next, I’ll explain some important common facts regarding divine artifacts. This will be extremely important to your future training.” Muba didn’t try to conceal anything at all. This ‘common knowledge’, however, for many experts who had just become Deities, was knowledge they would only gain after having suffered quite a few mishaps.