Book 21, The Peak – Chapter 29, Windhunter
The Divine Wind Plane. The Qingya Continent. In the skies, a sword-shaped metallic lifeform was advancing at high speed, moving like a flash of light.
Linley and Bebe were seated opposite of each other.
Next to them, a two meter tall man with black hair that gleamed like iron needles was standing respectfully. The black-haired man said courteously, “Sovereign, based on the intelligence reports of our Qingya Army, in the Qingya Continent, there are more than a thousand supreme experts worthy of your consideration, Sovereign. We can just select a location, then begin to choose from them. But right now, we…”
Linley glanced at the black-haired fellow, then chuckled, “Boo [A’bu], are you in a rush?”
“No, no.” The black-haired fellow instantly shook his head.
The Divine Wind Plane had a total of nine major continents, which were divided up according to the various levels of power of the seven Sovereigns. The ocean was extremely large, but was completely controlled by the Chief Sovereign of Wind, who also had his own continent on top of that. The other Lesser Sovereigns were only in control of one continent each, while the Intermediate Sovereigns controlled two each.
The continent which Teresia had controlled was the ‘Qingya Continent’.
And so, Linley’s territory within the Divine Wind Plane was naturally the Qingya Continent as well.
The Qingya Continent had the Qingya Army, which was directly subordinate to the Qingya Sovereign. The Qingya Army’s commander was this ‘Boo’.
“This Sovereign has quite a strange temperament, but he’s not a bad fellow.” Boo mused to himself. “Still, how powerful is Sovereign Linley, exactly? Why is it that from the earlier conversation between Lord Linley and Chief Sovereign Diya, I seemed to feel as though…Lord Diya was somewhat afraid of Lord Linley? Why did he speak so pleasantly towards him?”
“One is a Chief Sovereign, while the other is a Sovereign. But it seems as though the positions are reversed.” Boo was filled with confusion.
Upon arriving at the Divine Wind Plane, Linley had naturally gone to seek out the Chief Sovereign of Wind, Diya.
Diya, upon seeing that Linley had come to pay him a visit, was so frightened that the look on his face had changed.
Diya still remembered quite clearly the sight of Linley easily using a single sword blow to badly wound the Chief Sovereign of Lightning, eradicating his earth Sovereign clone and frightening him so badly that he had fled without even daring to look back. Given Linley’s power, it would be very easy for him to eradicate the Chief Sovereign of Wind, Diya.
What was worse was that Linley and Diya didn’t have a good relations.h.i.+p between them, only enmity. Upon seeing Linley arrive, naturally Diya had been frightened!
However, Linley hadn’t attacked, and instead discussed the matter of ‘territory’ with him.
Diya had immediately offered to gift Linley with the continent he controlled, but Linley had declined.
Afterwards, Diya had personally taken Linley to locate the commander of the Qingya Army, ‘Boo’, and had told Boo that Linley was now the controller of the Qingya Continent. Boo, however, had paid close attention to the att.i.tudes and speaking mannerisms of the two as they had chatted, and he had instantly grown puzzled.
After all, while chatting with Linley, Diya would subconsciously act as though he were on a lower level.
“Boo, don’t be impatient. Let us now go to the Bluelion Domain.” Linley said with a calm laugh.
“Sovereign, are you planning to…?” A thought instantly arose in Boo’s mind.
The nearby Bebe snickered, “My Boss is naturally intending to go to the Bluelion Domain to see that challenge! You must understand that the challenge will take place a month from now. My Boss naturally is in no hurry, so we can just fly there slowly in this metallic lifeform. We should arrive in the Bluelion Domain just in time.”
Given how fast Sovereigns travelled at, they could arrive in the Bluefire Domain in an hour or so.
However, Linley instead chose to leisurely ride aboard his metallic lifeform and roam about slowly.
This so-called ‘leisurely speed’, however, was only leisurely for Sovereigns. To ordinary HighG.o.ds, their metallic lifeform was flying about at terrifying speeds.
“Sovereigns really have too much time on their hands.” Boo mused to himself.
“Boss, how much time do you plan to spend on your search for your six Emissaries?” Bebe sent. “It has been many years since we’ve gone out for a stroll. This time, we need to wander around a bit longer.”
Although they were nominally searching for Emissaries, in truth, they were also relaxing themselves.
“No rush. This Divine Plane is vast and endless…all we need to do is finish finding the Emissaries before the Planar War begins.” Linley said with a laugh.
“Actually, it is fine if we finish after the Planar War begins. After all, during the course of the Planar War, commander-level experts can still enter.” Bebe snickered.
The commander of the Qingya Army, Boo, blinked as he listened.
The Divine Wind Plane. The Qingya Continent. The Bluelion Domain.
“Sovereign, today is the day of the challenge. The Seven Star Windhunter, ‘Russell’ [La’sai’er], will be challenging the Lord of the Bluelion Domain, ‘Ombarafael’ [Wu’mu’bu’la’fei’er]. This Seven Star Windhunter, Russell, is very famous in our Divine Wind Plane, and is legendary for his speed and guile. But of course, his power is tremendous as well.” Boo said respectfully through divine sense.
At this moment, Linley and Bebe were striding up a mountain, shoulder-to-shoulder, while the black-haired Boo followed from behind.
“Russell…”
Linley still remembered the many scryer recordings which the intelligence networks had provided him via Boo. They had describe more than a thousand experts of the Qingya Continent, each of which was at least a Seven Star Windhunter in power, and who all had their own supreme techniques.
‘Windhunter’ was a term of address in the Divine Wind Plane.
This was much like how ‘Fiend’ was a term of address in the Infernal Realm.
A Seven Star Windhunter was the same as a Seven Star Fiend.
“Today’s battle will occur deep within the mountain gorge. Quite a few people have come to watch.” Boo sent mentally.
Linley nodded slightly.
Many figures flew past them in midair. Even this mountain road had quite a few figures on it. Only, the Deities all advanced in a graceful, fast manner, bounding forward a thousand kilometers with just a few steps. Although Linley’s group of three didn’t want to astonish the ordinary people present, they still travelled dozens of kilometers with each step.
“Eh? Boo, unless someone has intentionally transformed himself into the challenger, ‘Russell’, I think he is right behind us.” Linley said with a calm laugh.
“Oh?” Boo was rather surprised.
As a Sovereign, how tremendous was Linley’s divine sense? He could easily detect that a person was agilely flying forwards. Curious, Linley glanced towards this Russell.
Russell was a youth who was handsome enough to make any woman fall for him. He appeared rather weak and soft, and he had a smile that could mesmerize the G.o.ds themselves. It could be said that if Russell was a woman, he definitely would have caused countless Deities to go wild for him. But fortunately, he was a man.
Although his soft and feminine looks made many people dislike him, his innate charisma made it so that quite a few people would immediately feel kindly disposed towards him upon seeing him.
“It has been so many years. Given my current power, I should be able to act against Ombarafael by now.” Russell flew across the mountain forests while musing to himself. “It doesn’t matter. After having reached this level in my training, it is virtually impossible for me to advance any further. I’m not willing to wait any longer either.”
There were quite a few figures about this mountainous forest.
While flying over, Russell’s gaze suddenly focused, then tightened.
“Is that…” Russell was greatly shocked. “Bebe? And the Paragon, Linley?”
Russell swept the two of them with his gaze. He didn’t recognize Commander Boo of the Qingya Army, only Linley and Bebe. Boo, as the commander, rarely showed his face. There were quite a few legends regarding him in the Divine Wind Plane, but very, very few who had actually met him!
As for Linley and Bebe, prior to this, Linley’s defeat of Magnus during the Planar War had caused his name to become widespread. Quite a few people had recorded down scryer recordings of that battle, and even Bebe had been recorded down alongside Linley.
Naturally, the information regarding Linley and Bebe had quickly spread to the various planes.
Virtually all figures at the Seven Star Fiend level or higher would know about him, so long as they weren’t complete recluses.
“Swoos.h.!.+” Russell’s body flickered as he flew towards Linley’s group of three.
“Eh?” Linley couldn’t help but turn to look at Russell.
This Russell revealed a laugh on his face, and he immediately set up a G.o.drealm, separating this region from the outside world. He said respectfully, “Greetings, Mr. Linley.”
“Uh…” Linley was stunned.
“You know my Boss?” Bebe was rather surprised as well.
Russell laughed, “In the past, when Mr. Linley battled Magnus and exiled Magnus into chaotic s.p.a.ce, the battle was recorded down. Those scryer recordings have spread quite far, and some of my friends and I have watched them. Ever since that day, I memorized your appearance, Mr. Linley. Naturally, I also memorized Mr. Linley’s good friend, ‘Bebe’ as well.”
Linley and Bebe exchanged glances.
“I overlooked that.” Linley laughed helplessly as his appearance changed.
After becoming a Sovereign, Linley had become much less vigilant. In the entire universe, only the Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts were capable of causing him to feel concerned. He had come to the Divine Wind Plane to roam about with the intent of being a tourist, and so he hadn’t really thought things over. Only now did he realize that there was a problem here.
“Mr. Linley, your aura is completely retracted. After changing your appearance, others won’t be able to recognize you.” Russell immediately laughed.
“You were able recognize me just based on appearance?” Linley asked with some curiosity.
“Appearance was part of it. The second part was the fact that your aura was completely retracted. For even me to be unable to sense it…definitely means that this person’s power vastly surpa.s.ses my own.” Russell laughed. “Why would someone on this level of power be so bored as to impersonate someone else? That was why I was certain that the person in front of me was definitely you, Mr. Linley.”
Linley couldn’t help but laugh. “You are quite meticulous, it seems.”
“Quite clever. However, today, you are going to go challenge that Lord of the Bluelion Domain, yes?” Bebe let out a chortle. “Kid, are you confident in being able to win?”
“I’m not. However, it won’t be easy for him to defeat me either.” Russell laughed calmly.
Linley and Bebe thus headed off towards the deep gorge alongside Russell. Boo, by their side, laughed secretly, “Russell only knows that Lord Linley is a Paragon, but he has no idea…that Lord Linley is now a Sovereign! If he knew, he most likely wouldn’t act so casually.”
Boo had changed his appearance long ago. Only someone extremely familiar with Boo would be able to recognize him.
In addition, as the commander of the Qingya Army, Boo rarely had to show himself, and so very few people knew him.
Deep within the wide, s.p.a.cious gorge within the mountains, there was a dense a.s.semblage of more than a million people. All of them chatted quietly, while the many soldiers maintained military order.
Linley’s group of four arrived in the front of the crowd.
A black-robed elder spied Russell from afar. He couldn’t help but feel excited as he hurriedly went to greet him. “Mr. Russell, the Domain Lord has already arrived and is waiting for you.”
“Hmph, he came quite quickly. However, after today, the position of Lord of the Bluelion Domain will be mine.” Russell let out a cold laugh, then turned and glanced at Linley’s group of three. He sent mentally, “Mr. Linley, you’ll have to excuse me for now. I’m going to go fight Ombarafael.”
“We will watch here.” Bebe chortled.
Russell immediately flew into the skies, towards the empty central area.
The handsome, delicate-looking Russell’s eyes were currently filled with a cold, steely, knife-like look. He swept the area with his gaze, then let out a cold laugh before falling silent.
“Russell!”
“It is Russell!”
Instantly, the million-plus spectating Deities all grew excited. A flood of discourse instantly began to erupt.
“Everyone!” A clear voice rang out, echoing throughout the valley. Instantly, all the spectators fell silent.
The speaker was the black-robed elder who had welcome Russell. The black-robed elder hovered there in midair, saying in a clear voice, “This battle involves the Seven Star Windhunter, Russell, and our Domain Lord. Russell has already appeared. Immediately afterwards, let us welcome his Lords.h.i.+p, Lord Ombarafael!”
Instantly…
The distant group of soldiers suddenly split apart, creating a human corridor. A muscular man who was three meters tall, dressed completely in blue furs, walked over, step by step. This man’s face was covered with fur as well, and his eyes glowed dimly with a fear-inducing green light.
The Domain Lord of the Bluelion Domain…Ombarafael!
At this moment, the b.e.s.t.i.a.l-looking Lord of the Bluelion Domain was currently staring towards Russell.
The battle was about to begin!
“Boss, who do you think will win?” Bebe, also watching the battle, sent mentally to Linley.
“Do you truly think me omniscient?” Linley let out a calm laugh. “Let’s just watch. Aside from that challenge I personally issued, after going through those hundred Arena battles, I’ve never before seen anyone challenge a Lord Prefect or a Domain Lord.”