Book 20 - The Crown's Riddle Chapter 5: Refusal

Gislason's words were very correct. Indeed, the entire clan rejoiced!

Not just the high level members of the clan; even many of the ordinary clan members located throughout the Skyrite Mountains gathered together in various places, drinking, chatting, and laughing gaily. For the clan to have produced such an expert was something which made even the ordinary clansmen feel proud!

When the four ancestors had been alive, the clan had been in such a flourishing, vigorous state!

After they died, the clan had decayed, to the point of being loudly insulted by the eight great clans at the borders of the Skyrite Mountains. This was a humiliation! This caused the members of the clan, who had experienced those glory days, to feel very lost in their hearts!

Linley's sudden rise to prominence caused these clansmen to once more feel proud and arrogant.

It was a very wild celebration. Even the patrolling soldiers drank wine and celebrated. With a Highgod Paragon in the clan, the patrolling soldiers weren't concerned; no one would dare to come and make trouble for the Four Divine Beasts clan.

Late night. The Violet Moon hung high in the skies.

The Skyrite Mountains. Within a mountain controlled by the Azure Dragon clan. There was a large estate which stretched over an enormous amount of land built here. In terms of size, it was even larger than the residence of the Patriarch's. It seemed quite simple and plain from the distance, but if one took a close look...one would see that even the walls were covered with intricate, minute carvings. Given Linley's vision, he could instantly tell that these carvings were only accomplishable by someone who was at least at the grandmaster level in sculpting.

And right now...

In front of this mansion stood only two figures; Linley and Gislason.

Linley couldn't help but look towards the nearby Gislason. He mused to himself, "The Patriarch truly has prepared quite a few things for me."

"Patriarch, I'm going to live here?" Linley asked.

"Linley." Gislason laughed. "You are now the number one expert of our Four Divine Beasts clan! When people in the outside world discuss the Four Divine Beasts clan, the first person they will think about is you. Your residence has to match your stature. In addition, this place is fairly large, and you have many family and friends. It is enough."

Linley couldn't help but nod.

The size of this estate was similar to the 'Dragonblood Castle' of the Yulan continent. Even a thousand people could fit inside, much less a hundred.

"Then I will accept it." Linley was quite straightforward.

Gislason laughed and nodded. "Tomorrow, you can move your family and friends over here." Wharton and the others were currently staying within the large gorge already. Hogg went to go visit his ancestors in the Baruch clan. To Hogg and Wharton, seeing the ancestors of the clan was what mattered the most.

"No rush." Linley said. "My family members will want to spend some time with the Yulan branch and their ancestors."

"Fair enough." Gislason laughed and nodded. "Linley...look." As he spoke, Gislason produced a little jade bottle in his hands.

This jade bottle had a small opening. It was generally used for keeping items like already-refined Golden Soul Pearls or other small pills.

"This is...?" Linley frowned. "Sovereign's Might?"

"Right. Earth-type Sovereign's Might." Gislason laughed. "Linley, I know that you primarily train in the Laws of the Earth. Thus, it is better for you to use earth-type Sovereign's Might. That is why we prepared this for you! You are the number one expert of our clan; naturally, you have to use the most suitable type of Sovereign's Might."

Although this little jade bottle of Sovereign's Might was far from being comparable to the flask Reisgem had given Linley, it still had to have at least a thousand drops in it.

"Patriarch." Linley didn't accept, instead shaking his head. "This jade bottle has far too much Sovereign's Might. Ever since the four ancestors of our clan perished, our Four Divine Beasts clan lost our source for more Sovereign's Might. Each drop we use is a drop lost forever. It is best if you keep them and let the other Elders of the clan use them."

Linley knew that given his own power, even if he used Destruction-type Sovereign's Might, he had nothing to fear from Paragons, and in Dragonform even held a slight advantage.

"Haha..."

Gislason laughed. "Linley, you are worrying too much. In the past, our clan had to be stingy in using Sovereign's Might, partially because we no longer had a source for it, but partially because we were being put under great pressure by the eight great clans. We used up Sovereign's Might too quickly; each battle represented the loss of a drop of Sovereign's Might, and generally, we would engage in tens of battles before being able to kill an enemy Elder. Because they were being used up too quickly, the clan didn't dare to hand them out freely. After all, at that time, we had no idea what the future would hold for the clan...and so we had to be a bit more thrifty."

"But now, Linley, you are a Paragon. Who would dare come offend our Four Divine Beasts clan?" Gislason's laughter was very happy.

Linley, hearing this, was somewhat persuaded by Gislason.

Indeed, given his level of power, there would be few people who would be so blind as to come irritate his clan. There would no longer be that many situations where the clan would use up much Sovereign's Might.

"Take it, Linley.' Gislason urged.

Linley hesitated slightly.

"Let's do this, then!" With a flip of his hand, Linley instantly controlled his divine earth power to draw in earth elemental essence from the surrounding area, which formed into the shape of a little black flask in Linley's hands. Linley pointed with one finger, and immediately, a stream of black water appeared out of nowhere in Linley's palms, flowing towards the black flask.

This black 'water' was actually Destruction-type Sovereign's Might.

Linley truly had a very large amount of Destruction-type Sovereign's Might.

Moments later, the flask was filled with it. This flask was roughly ten percent of the canteen in volume.

"What are you...?" Gislason stared.

"Patriarch, let's swap this flask of Destruction-type Sovereign's Might of mine, for that flask of earth-type Sovereign's Might of yours. It is indeed true that if I have earth-type Sovereign's Might, I will be more effective." Laughing, Linley offered the little black flask.

If the clan had a tremendous amount of Sovereign's Might, Linley would have accepted it. But the clan didn't actually have that much; most likely, that little flask represented a large fraction of the clan's reserve of Sovereign's Might.

"Linley." Gislason said hurriedly. "This isn't acceptable. You..."

"Take it, or else I won't take yours." Linley shook his head.

Gislason could only laugh helplessly, then nod. "Fine." He accepted the flask of Destruction-type Sovereign's Might, while Linley accepted the flask of earth-type Sovereign's Might. As Linley was concerned, he had a large amount of Destruction-type Sovereign's Might, but given his power, there would be very few cases in which he would have to use it. To trade it for earth-type Sovereign's Might was beneficial for him.

Time flowed onwards, and in the blink of an eye, more than ten years had passed since Linley's return to the clan.

Linley could sense that the attitude of his clansmen, including the clan leaders, had changed. Linley understood...that after having become a Paragon, he had already become the spiritual leader of the entire Four Divine Beasts clan. His position was now akin to what the War God had held in the O'Brien Empire or the High Priest had held in the Yulan Empire.

The estate in which Linley resided had become a holy ground for the clan.

Within the vast, grassy plains of the estate's courtyard, there was a large group of people gathered. Linley, Reynolds, Yale, and George were seated in a circle, drinking wine and chatting idly about various things. But of course...it was Linley's divine water clone that was chatting with them. The other clones, including his original body, were all training.

It was still Linley's original body that trained the fastest, after all.

"Elder Linley." A gate guard ran over and bowed.

"Hm?" Linley looked at him.

"Elder Linley, the Patriarch has sent word that a Lord Prefect from the Jadefloat Continent wishes to meet you, Elder." The guard bowed as he spoke.

Linley laughed and nodded calmly, then swept out with his divine sense, instantly encompassing the entire Skyrite Mountains within it. Naturally, this included Gislason and that Lord Prefect. Linley sent mentally. "Patriarch, just tell this Lord Prefect that I am currently training and unable to meet with any guests. Unless something important happens, please help me cope with them."

Gislason was startled.

He actually hadn't detected Linley's divine sense at all. He couldn't help but sigh. "Paragons really are incredible. The strength of their spiritual energy vastly surpasses mine." Gislason understood Linley's temperament as well; Linley couldn't be bothered to engage in meetings like this, which were solely for the purpose of people trying to befriend him.

"Alright, I'll help you deal with them." Gislason replied. "Then, in the future, unless there is an important matter, you won't meet with any figures like these?"

"Right." Linley sent mentally. "Aside from people I am familiar with, such as Reisgem. If I'm not familiar with them and have no connection to them, unless there is an important matter, I won't meet with any of them."

Linley's decision was quite wise, because after the arrival of this Lord Prefect from the Jadefloat Continent, every few months or every few years, someone would come. Some wanted to befriend Linley, while others wanted to ask Linley to help them with something. Still others wanted to take Linley as their teacher.

In short, many came to disturb him.

Fortunately, the Four Divine Beasts clan stopped them, making it so that no one could see Linley.

Actually, it was normal for many people to come see Linley. After all, Paragons rarely publicized their residences. It was very hard for people to locate Paragons.

Within his estate.

"Uncle." Ina looked suspiciously at Linley. "Just now, that person who wanted to come visit you thought up a method to deliver this letter. And indeed, the letter states quite clearly the nature of the injustice done to him, and he really is quite pitiable. Uncle, why can't you be so kind as to help him?"

Linley couldn't help but chuckle as he glanced sideways at Ina.

"Nana." Bebe stared at his daughter. "Who knows how many grudges and how much hatred the Infernal Realm holds? You want your uncle to help one person, but what about the countless other grudges? In the Infernal Realm, people are being killed at every moment of every day. Do you think every person who died deserved to die? They died unjust deaths as well. Do you want your uncle to make the entire Infernal Realm his enemy, and go get revenge for every single person who died?"

Ina was stunned.

Ina and Wade lived under the protection of Linley and Bebe, and so they had almost never suffered. They weren't like Linley, who had walked a fine line between life and death to his current level. They saw the affairs of the world so simply.

"If I were to help people who are neither family nor friends, then I would need a trillion clones." Linley chuckled.

Ina let out an adorable sniff, her nose wrinkled.

"Forget about the affairs of others; there are many personal matters that I haven't carried out very well." Linley shook his head and sighed.

"Eh?" Ina looked at Linley, puzzled.

Linley chuckled, not going into detail.

Although these days had been peaceful and happy, Linley noticed how his father, Hogg, would occasionally stare blankly into space when he was by himself. Linley understood that his father was missing his mother. Linley had always been thinking to himself...that one day, he should go pay a visit to the Divine Light Plane and ask for the Chief Sovereign of Light to restore his mother's freedom.

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, a hundred years passed.

Quite a few people were gathered within Linley's estate.

"Third Bro suddenly shut himself inside a few days ago. All of his clones are in training. He said that he reached a critical moment...but a sudden flash of insight should be very fast. Why hasn't he come out yet?" Reynolds couldn't help but glance at a distant corridor, while George just laughed calmly, "Why the rush? You have eternal life now."

Reynolds, hearing this, couldn't help but laugh.

Indeed, to Deities who were untouched by time, ten years or a hundred years was nothing.

"Eh, Third Bro is coming?" Yale said.

Reynolds and the others all turned to look. Even some of the chatting, laughing people located in the grassy area some distance away noticed that a figure had emerged from the corridor, a figure with long, unbound brown hair. It was Linley. Linley was in a fairly good mood today. "I've trained for a hundred years. I've finally fused these two types of profound mysteries."

It was exceedingly hard to fuse profound mysteries of different Laws.

After becoming a Soul Mutate, his soul had increased in power enormously, and yet he still had to spend so many years before making a true breakthrough.

"And this is just the beginning. Next I will fuse three kinds...and the amount of time I will have to spend will increase exponentially. My goal is fusing four." Linley was quite eager as well. If he was able to fuse four types of profound mysteries from different Laws, how powerful would he become? Most likely, he would be able to kill even Paragons.

"Boss." Bebe ran over.

"My father?" Linley asked.

"Uncle's in his room. I haven't seen him today." Bebe said.

"Right. I'll go find my father." Linley glanced towards the others, then moved towards his father's residence. After completing his training, Linley's first thought was that it was time to go to the Divine Light Plane. "Regardless of whether or not I will be successful, I still at least need to go see the Chief Sovereign of Light and try asking."