Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 28, The Essence of Fire

“Slash!”

Crimson blood splattered across the dusty yellow cliffs, and shards of flesh fell down from the skies.

“All of you, die.” Bebe’s face was savage, and his dozens of shadows were everywhere. Through relying on the Shadowshape Doppelganger technique, Bebe was occasionally here, occasionally there as he entered a wild killing spree. Bebe’s eyes were filled with madness. “That bastard Salomon. That bastard!”

“If Salomon hadn’t intentionally caused chaos, how could Ninny and I have been separated?” As he thought this, he stabbed out with the dagger in his hand towards an opponent’s divine artifact, chopping it into two pieces while simultaneously cutting through the opponent’s head, which exploded.

“Ninny, Ninny!”

Bebe’s mind was full of thoughts of Ninny, but as he thought of Salomon, the speed at which he killed grew even faster.

A massacre. Bebe wildly vented his anger. How he wanted to be together with Nisse. Each time he saw Linley and Delia together, he would think of himself and Nisse. Only, this Infernal Realm was utterly vast, and Nisse was heading towards the Jadefloat Continent.

Who knew when they would meet again?

“Kill, kill!!!”

Bebe killed wildly, ignoring all else.

“Flee, flee!!!” The bandits who were not yet dead all began to scream in terror while fleeing in all directions. The leader of the bandits, in particular, had turned ashen pale. He had never imagined that Gods could be this monstrously powerful.

They were being easily demolished!

“Finished. My men are all finished.” The leader felt grief in his heart, but although he grieved, whenever he looked at Linley and Bebe, these two fiendish gods, he was so frightened that his heart trembled. “No matter what, I need to first save my own life.”

The leader ignored everyone else and immediately fled.

After Linley and Bebe killed those closest to them, they discovered that the other bandits had started to flee in every direction. Linley couldn’t be bothered to chase them, but Bebe, caught in the grip of his bloodlust, howled angrily and them emitted a high screech which echoed throughout the heavens.

An enormous illusory Godeater Rat appeared behind Bebe. Bebe opened his mouth wide, staring at the distant bandit leader as well as a man next to him.

“Aaaaaah!” The bandit leader, in mid-flight, suddenly felt that he couldn’t move. Not just him; the God next to him couldn’t move either.

Suddenly, the God-level divine sparks of the two men floated out. Two divine sparks actually flew out of the leader, while another flew out from his subordinate’s head. These three divine sparks flew directly towards Bebe’s mouth.

The two corpses fell down from mid-air.

Linley looked at Bebe with some concern. Very clearly, Bebe was acting rather strangely.

“Bebe?” Linley flew over.

Bebe turned, then shook his head a few times and laughed, “Boss, don’t worry. I’m fine. Just now, I was feeling rather peeved, and so I wanted to give vent to my anger. I feel much better now. These bandits really were blind. They actually dared to come waylay us. They really were looking for death!”

Linley, seeing the look on Bebe’s face, finally sighed in relief.

“These bandits will most likely not dare annoy us again.” Linley laughed as well.

Actually, Linley had been prepared long ago for this day. Every single place in the Infernal Realm was controlled and occupied by a force. In some desolate areas, it was normally just common bandits or small tribes, while in bustling areas, greater forces and powers would be in control.

The mountain range which Linley had chosen was very ordinary.

Linley expected that there shouldn’t be many experts here. After today, in the future, most likely nobody in the area would dare make trouble for them again.

“Oh! I forgot to take the interspatial rings of many of those corpses. Although there wasn’t much money there, we shouldn’t let it go to waste.” Bebe immediately flew down, and Linley couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing Bebe in a better mood, Linley felt happy as well. “Bebe, wait for me.” Linley flew down as well.

This slaughter did indeed awe and frighten the people nearby. The bandit group, originally 82 strong, had only less than thirty survivors after this disaster. This small bandit group frantically began to recruit others, but they didn’t dare to come disturb Linley’s group again. They didn’t even dare to draw near.

And just like that, one year after another passed by like water as they trained quietly.

“Rumble…”

In the sixteenth year of Linley’s training here, the natural Laws descended.

Within the cavern estate, Delia and Bebe both watched with nervous, surprised joy. Linley himself was floating in mid-air, completely surrounded by the strange energy of the natural Laws, while at the same time, powerful fire elemental essences swirled above him, then solidified into a fire-type divine spark.

“The Boss has become a Deity in the fire-element as well.” Bebe said in delight.

Delia was filled with excitement and joy as well.

In training, talent was critically important. If one didn’t have talent in something, no matter how long one trained, one would find it hard to succeed. Linley was exceedingly talented in the wind and earth elements, and thus he trained very quickly in them. As for the fire-element, he wasn’t bad either. Only, compared to the wind and the earth, it was rather weaker.

However, given how incredibly powerful his soul currently was, and the fact that he had been training on the metallic creature previously, giving him a total training time of over twenty years…

Linley had finally mastered the simplest type of profound mystery of the Elemental Laws of Fire – ‘The Essence of the Fire’.

This time, Linley once more chose to have his soul split apart. After all, Linley was currently in possession of a large number of amethysts and a large amount of wealth. To strengthen his soul wouldn’t be too hard.

“Crackle…”

A Linley dressed in a fiery red robe and with fiery long hair suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was Linley’s divine fire clone.

Moments later, the ripples of the natural Laws disappeared, and the divine fire clone merged into Linley’s original body. Within the sea of consciousness in Linley’s original body, his powerful spiritual energy was gently flowing like waves of the ocean, while a rainbow-colored sword-shaped soul hovered above it.

Beneath the rainbow-colored sword-shaped soul, on the surface of his sea of consciousness, three Linley’s hovered. They were a Linley who emitted by an earthen light, a Linley who emitted a light green aura, and a Linley who emitted a fiery red aura. The three Linley’s formed a triangle exactly beneath the sword-shaped soul.

Linley opened his eyes, looking at the delighted Delia and Bebe.

“Boss, you now have three divine clones. With your original body included, that makes four.” Bebe rubbed his nose as he spoke. “Compared to you, I, Bebe, really feel embarrassed. Up till now, I still only have two bodies, my original body included.”

“Bebe, you at least have two. I only have one. Shouldn’t I be even more embarrassed?” Delia teased with pursed lips.

Linley couldn’t help but laugh.

Right now, both Delia and Bebe were exceedingly happy for Linley. With an additional divine clone, that meant he had another life, while at the same time meant that his future accomplishments would be even greater.

“This divine fire clone is only a Demigod clone. It is still very weak. Right now…I still need to rely on my earth and wind clones.” Linley himself knew that for now, four bodies was most likely his limit. After all, Linley didn’t know a single thing about the other Elemental Laws.

Lightning, water, light, darkness, etc. Linley didn’t understand anything about them.

“Without any talent, I’m not even able to sense the Elemental Laws. How could I train in them? Even if I trained for a million years, I would still find it hard to succeed.” Linley began to understand why the more one advanced in training, the harder it became.

Currently, in his understanding of the Laws of the Earth, he had already reached mastery in the Throbbing Pulse of the World and the Essence of the Earth. Over the past sixteen years, his Worldwalker had advanced as well.

“The Laws of the Earth have in total six profound mysteries. I’ve only trained in three. Right now, although it seems like I am advancing quickly, the more I advance, most likely the slower it will become.” Linley understood. After all, the ‘Essence of the Fire’, the simplest profound mystery of the Elemental Laws of Fire, had taken twenty years, despite his soul being so incredibly strong.

When he had trained in the Essence of the Earth, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Linley was merging it with the Throbbing Pulse of the World, two years probably would have been enough for mastery.

And at that time, Linley’s soul was much weaker than it was now.

This was a difference in talent!

Perhaps in training and comprehending, a person’s hard work and spiritual sensitivity determined everything. Some people, upon seeing a scene, would instantly and naturally make the mental connections and perhaps suddenly breakthrough. This didn’t have anything to do with elemental affinity; it was related to a person’s pondering and logic, to one’s spiritual sensitivity.

But with regards to how clearly or how unclearly one would sense the Elemental Laws, that was a matter of natural talent.

“Boss, what are you thinking about?” Bebe suddenly woke Linley from his pondering.

“Nothing. Just some random things. Let’s go. We’ll go to our living room to celebrate.” In all those interspatial rings, quite a few had stored fine wine. Linley turned to look at Delia. Suddenly, he asked, “Delia, how has your fusing of the divine spark progressed?”

“I’ve fused with eight of the profound mysteries. I expect that in a few more years, I should be able to comprehend the ninth one as well.” Delia smiled as she spoke.

“In a few more years, we can finally head out.” Bebe said rather hopefully.

Linley glanced at Bebe. In his heart, he felt rather guilty. Bebe had essentially been keeping them company here for sixteen years, while Nisse and her elder brother Salomon had most likely already reached Bluemaple City, and perhaps had even headed out on their journey to the Jadefloat Continent.

Who knew when Bebe and Nisse would meet again?

“Bebe, let’s go drink some wine.” Linley rested his right hand on Bebe’s shoulders. The two brothers headed together towards the outside.

In the blink of an eye, nearly five more years passed. Delia finally completely fused with that Highgod spark, reaching the Highgod level. From the outside, especially upon seeing Delia’s Fiend medallion on her chest, it was clear…that she was a Highgod Fiend!

Highgod Fiends had quite a frightening reputation.

“We’ve been in this place for over twenty years. I feel rather attached to it.” Linley turned to look at the cave estate, while the nearby Delia couldn’t help but laugh. Jokingly, she said, “What, you want to keep living here? How about…we stay for a few more decades?”

“Haha, let’s go.”

Linley waved his hand, and suddenly, a black panther shaped metallic lifeform appeared in mid-air. Linley’s group flew into it. The metallic lifeform immediately transformed into a ray of light, flying towards the east. By now, Linley had over ten metallic lifeforms.

These metallic lifeforms had been discovered within those hundred-plus interspatial rings. After all, quite a few Highgods had purchased metallic lifeforms.

Within the metallic lifeform, Linley and the other two were seated on chairs, looking outside through the translucent ‘window’ to look outside. They drank wine as they headed forward.

“Boss, this metallic lifeform is so bizarre. Generally speaking, humans and magical beasts can’t be stored in interspatial rings, but metallic lifeforms can. Also, I feel as though their intelligence is very low.” Bebe said.

Linley nodded slightly. He had noticed this as well.

“Perhaps metallic lifeforms are rather special.” Linley said.

Actually, what Linley didn’t realize was that all the metallic lifeforms bought and sold in places like Redbud Castle had undergone some special modifications. They were already essentially transportation tools who only had very basic thought processes.

Seated within the metallic lifeform, Linley’s group of three continued to advance.

The metallic lifeform once more halted, and Linley chuckled towards Delia. “Delia, sorry. We’re going to have to trouble you to go out again.” Delia laughed helplessly. “There really are quite a few bandits here, and they are all so annoying. They can’t find me with their divine sense, but as soon as I head out, they go ‘whoosh’ and disappear.”

Indeed…

As soon as Delia exited the metallic lifeform, those hundred-plus Gods, upon seeing someone whom they couldn’t find with their divine sense, and in particular someone with a Fiend medallion…

“A Highgod Fiend!”

The bandits were so terrified, they immediately scattered.

Delia headed back into the metallic lifeform. “Let’s continue going forward.”

Bebe laughed loudly. “Haha, Delia, Highgod Fiends really are quite frightening to people!”

Delia nodded and said, “Actually, it makes sense. The Fiend trials are so very hard. Survival of the fittest! Also, the Fiend missions are fairly dangerous. In battles, it is Highgod against Highgod, God against God…generally speaking, after multiple missions, the surviving Highgods are all rather powerful ones.”

Linley, hearing this, nodded slightly. This made a lot of sense.

“But of course, there’s another situation; a Highgod who is weak, but has a team.” Delia laughed. “Only then can that Highgod undertake multiple missions without dying. No matter what though, when bandits encounter Highgod Fiends, they will generally flee immediately.”