Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

After spending eighteen days of time, Linley had finally completed this technique which he had been pondering for so long. This ‘Bewildering Shadow’ was Linley’s most powerful material attack now. After having developed the ‘Bewildering Shadow’, Linley began to accompany Delia and Bebe with a relaxed mind.

After the metallic life had waited outside Yilan City for a month or so, the white-horned elder finally returned with a group of hired Fiends. Soon, nearly a hundred Fiends had followed the white-horned elder over.

“So there are Fiends here already.” The hired Fiends, upon seeing Linley’s group, couldn’t help but begin to laugh and chat.

“But there’s so few people. There’s less than twenty people, all combined.”

“Most likely this mission really will be as dangerous as claimed.”

“Dangerous? If they died during the mission, all that can be said was that they were useless!”

Hearing this discourse, the three Edwards brothers, Learmonth, and those original Fiends were all laughing coldly in their hearts….

“So few? How would you know that when we first started, we had over a hundred Fiends as well!”

“Useless? Let’s see how many of you will survive.”

Linley and the others felt as though they could already see the sight of these Fiends being killed.

The white-horned elder laughed. “Everyone has been waiting for quite some time now. Let’s go in. We’re heading out now.”

Immediately, the bustling array of people all filled the metallic creature, with Linley, Delia, Bebe, Nisse, and Salomon walking together.

“Hired so many?” Bebe mumbled. “110 Fiends, a hundred at the God-level, with the other ten being Highgods. Why invite so many Gods? To serve as cannon fodder?”

Hearing Bebe’s words, Linley actually mused to himself, “Cannon fodder? No, most likely, with more Fiends present, it will be easier to hide Salomon’s identity.”

Linley suddenly thought back to that original conversation he had with Salomon early on.

During that conversation, Salomon had intentionally acted mysteriously and said that this escort mission was very risky, and that the origin point for this mission actually wasn’t Royalwing City. He had said that if this mission ran into any danger, Linley should immediately flee and try to preserve himself. At that time, Linley had felt grateful towards Salomon.

But afterwards, Linley had learned…

That this escort mission’s primary figure was actually Salomon!

“Most likely, he intentionally spread that ‘rumor’ as well.” Linley said to himself. “When danger came, if the Fiends scattered everywhere, he would most likely have a chance to flee as well. By then, with so many people fleeing and him amongst them, others would only pay attention to the white-horned elder. Nobody would go deal with him.”

Linley had to admit that Salomon truly did think far ahead.

Hiring more Fiends was just done for obscuring the truth.

“It’s best to be somewhat cautious when dealing with someone like him. Otherwise, I’ll probably be taken advantage of by him without even realizing it.” Linley couldn’t help but feel more guarded towards Salomon.

The metallic lifeform had remained outside of Yilan City for roughly a month, and now it was once more heading off. Currently, the metallic lifeform had once more transformed to the size it had been at when leaving Royalwing City. The interior of the metallic lifeform once more appeared to be bustling.

The metallic lifeform. Linley and Delia’s room.

Delia was frowning as though thinking about something. She then turned to look at Linley and spoke. “Linley, there’s something I want to tell you.”

“Hm, what is it?” Linley turned his head to look at Delia. Judging from her expression, it seemed to be rather important.

Delia frowned. “Linley, at first, when we accepted this mission, we thought that it would help us move along the way in our journey. But I keep on having the feeling that this mission is too dangerous. Don’t you know who we are escorting? One of the ancient clans of the Infernal Realm and the massive wealth they have accumulated over countless years! We’ve been attacked twice already. I’m worried there will be a third attack. Most likely, the third attack will be even more dangerous than the first two. Although we do need to face some challenges in the Infernal Realm, but, we don’t need to put ourselves in such danger. We could die at any moment.”

Linley nodded.

During this journey, they had first suffered the bandit attack, which had only been a probe. The second attack within the castle of sand had been filled with danger. If there was a third attack, how dangerous would it be?

Linley reached out with his arm, taking Delia into his embrace. In a gentle voice, he said, “Delia, I know. However, we’ve already accepted this mission. What are we supposed to do, withdraw from it? Look at those other surviving Fiends. Do you see any of them withdrawing?”

If they had taken the chance to flee during a chaotic battle, they would at least have an excuse and say that they fled in terror and got separated.

But actively withdrawing…

Once this was recorded down into the mission records of the Fiend Castles, once it spread out, they would have lost all face! In the Infernal Realm, courage was reverenced while cowardice was reviled! In addition, the Infernal Realm was dangerous to begin with. Everyone was psychologically prepared for the danger.

“That’s not what I meant.” Delia said hurriedly. “I understand that we can’t withdraw. Once that spreads to the Indigo Prefecture and your ancestors find out…we can’t lose face like that. All I wanted to say was that once we arrive at the Rainbow Prefecture’s Bluemaple City, we need to do a better job of selecting missions. An easier one.”

“I understand.”

Linley nodded, then comforted her, “Don’t worry. We’re halfway through the journey now. Wait a bit longer.”

“Delia doesn’t like danger.” Linley said to himself quietly. In truth, only when teetering at the brink of death, when fighting for his life at the edge of the blade, when encountering danger, did Linley feel his blood pumping. He wasn’t afraid at all.

On the contrary, Linley felt as though he were back in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts as a youth.

This was a very exciting feeling.

“Creeaaaak.” He shut the door, then headed towards the main hall.

Because there were many Fiends, the main hall within the metallic lifeform seemed quite crowded. There were seven or eight people seated there drinking and chatting, two of whom Linley recognized. Months had passed since they had left Yilan City, and Linley had gotten to know these Fiends.

“Oi, Linley!” Immediately, a Fiend greeted Linley from afar.

Linley grinned and waved back, then sat down by himself at a round table. He casually ordered two dishes and some wine, then began to drink by himself.

At this time, a muscular, two meter tall man with golden hair walked over, somewhat surprised. He looked at Linley curiously, then said softly, “You…are Linley?”

Puzzled, Linley looked up and glanced at him. “Right. I am Linley.”

“You are Linley Baruch?” The golden haired man suddenly asked.

Linley was greatly shocked. Someone knew his full name. “You are?” The golden haired man, seeing the look on Linley’s face, laughed and sat down. “Linley, don’t be nervous. I’ve just heard of you before, that’s all.”

“Heard of me before?” Linley didn’t understand.

In the Infernal Realm, he didn’t have much of a reputation. How could a stranger recognize him?

“Let me introduce myself first. My name is Bachelor [Ba’che’lei]. As for why I know your name…Olivier, you know him, yes?” The man laughed.

Linley was shocked. “Bachelor, you know Olivier?”

After having been in the Infernal Realm for so long, upon suddenly hearing the name ‘Olivier’, Linley’s heart was filled with a strange feeling. After all, this was someone from his homeland of the Yulan Plane.

“Of course I know him.” Bachelor held a goblet of wine, laughing. “Olivier and I have a bit of a history together. We arrived in the same batch of people to the Infernal Realm, and then were tossed out by the Redbud Army together, so we took up residence in a nearby tribe.”

Linley nodded to himself. This was essentially his experience as well.

“At that time, I was already a God, while Olivier was only a Demigod. However, his training speed was very fast. After roughly fifty years, he reached the God level in the Laws of Light.” Bachelor sighed. “And then, we came together to Yilan City to take part in the Fiend trials. We both succeeded in becoming One Star Fiends!”

Linley had a hint of a smile on his face.

It seemed as though Bachelor and Olivier’s relationship truly wasn’t just a superficial one.

“Then where is Olivier himself?” Linley asked.

Bachelor shook his head helplessly. “After becoming One Star Fiends, we took on a two star mission. However, we encountered some danger in that mission. Unable to deal with it, we all fled in every direction. I fled with some of my friends back to Yilan City. As for Olivier, I haven’t been able to find him.”

Linley frowned.

“Perhaps Olivier is still alive. Who knows?” Bachelor raised his head, gulping down the wine in his goblet, then put it back down and sighed. “Fiend missions are filled with danger to begin with. If you die, you die.”

Linley nodded slightly.

In the Infernal Realm, death was all too common. Everyone was mentally prepared.

“When Olivier and I were in the tribe together, he mentioned you to me before. You gave him a very deep, lasting impression.” Bachelor sighed. “When I praised him for having been so quick to become a God, he said that you probably had reached this level as well. And it seems this is indeed the case!”

Linley let out a long, drawn breath.

While they were in the Yulan continent, he and Olivier had often been viewed as equals and discussed in the same breath by others. The two were acclaimed as the two greatest talents the Yulan continent had seen in over ten thousand years. However, within the boundless Infernal Realm, Linley and Olivier were very unremarkable figures.

“I hope that Olivier is still alive.” Linley quietly prayed for his compatriot.

“I was able to run into two talents who come from the same material plane. This is a form of karmic destiny. Come, cheers.” Bachelor grinned as he spoke.

Linley had good impression of Bachelor as well, and so he laughed and raised his own goblet as well.

Linley began to casually chat while drinking with Bachelor. When Linley mentioned the battle at Moon Lake Castle, Bachelor shared his own experiences during his own Fiend trial. However, at this time, neither Linley nor Bachelor noticed that the metallic lifeform was currently flying through a volcanic region.

“Based on the map, it should be an ordinary mountain range beneath us. Why did it transform into a volcano range?”

The two Fiends by the window chatted together.

Indeed, this volcano range had moved here not long ago!

Linley and Bachelor were still chatting happily.

“Linley, you have no idea. Even I thought that I was dead for sure. At that second, with a ‘slash’ sound, Olivier suddenly appeared behind the enemy, then stabbed him straight through the back of his head, killing him with a single blow. That’s the only reason why I managed to survive.” Bachelor said excitedly.

But right at that moment…

“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”

A dense array of sounds suddenly pierced through the skies, while at the same time, the metallic lifeform exploded apart with a ‘BOOM’ sound. Countless red boulders were smashing towards all of the Fiends within the metallic creature. Everything immediately became a scene of utter chaos.

“BOOM!” A Fiend who was drinking in the main hall not too far away from them was struck by one of those fiery red boulders. His body was smashed into a pulp, and his head was shattered open, his divine spark falling down from mid-air.

An enormous fiery boulder came smashing towards Linley, who immediately dodged, but the fiery red bolder suddenly arced in midair.

“BANG!” It smashed hard onto Linley’s body.

Linley’s body trembled violently, and the Pulseguard Armor on his body trembled as well. “Fortunately, this Pulseguard Armor was defensively strong enough!” Linley secretly celebrated. “Not good. Delia.” Linley immediately wanted to fly towards Delia.

But a large number of fiery boulders continued to smash around him.

Linley discovered that Bachelor was currently facing the attack of a fiery red boulder. Bachelor roared angrily, chopping down with the greatsword in his hands, and a surge of fierce power struck viciously against that fiery boulder, which was immediately cleft in two.

However, the two cleft halves actually continued to fly towards Bachelor.

Bachelor’s face changed dramatically.

“Whoosh!” An illusory, blurry violet sword shadow suddenly appeared. The violet sword shadow was lightning-fast, but it also gave a slow, plodding feeling. Wherever the sword shadow passed by, space itself trembled. The violet sword shadow struck towards those two boulders, which immediately shattered apart, transforming into a large amount of pebbles.

Bachelor immediately let out a breath, glancing sideways towards Linley with a hint of thankfulness in his eyes.

“Careful!” Linley’s face changed dramatically.

“Boom!”

A nearby fiery boulder that had been attacking someone else suddenly changed direction, smashing directly towards Bachelor’s head. “BANG!” Bachelor’s head exploded, and a divine spark fell down from mid-air.