Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

In the air above the boundless Forest of Darkness, a black shadow was streaking through the skies at high speed, disappearing into the horizon.

Bebe’s little eyes were filled with grief and rage.

“I will make them die!” Bebe ground his fangs, but first, Bebe flew in the direction to where Linley was training in seclusion.

“Swish!” It was a bright day. Although there were soldiers on guard, a blurred shadow suddenly flashed past them, entering the underground tunnels. Those soldiers didn’t even notice that a magical beast had entered the hidden area.

Within the main hall of the underground tunnels.

Barker had already left. Linley and Delia weren’t in a hurry to return to their training, as they quietly waited for Bebe to arrive first.

“Boss.” Sobs in his voice, Bebe threw himself into Linley’s arms.

“What is it, Bebe?” Linley and Delia both felt shocked.

In Linley’s arms, Bebe raised his little head, staring at Linley with his emotional eyes. “Boss, my father and mother are both dead already. Wuuuuuu.” Bebe had been wondering about them this entire time, but alas, this was the result.

“What happened? Speak clearly.” Linley said hurriedly. “Don’t cry.”

Linley could sense that Bebe seemed to still have the mental age of a youngster. He was far from being an adult of whatever race he was.

Bebe nodded. “I already met Grandpa Beirut. Grandpa Beirut told me that my father was a Stoneater Rat, and my mother was a Shadowmouse. They were both very powerful, both at the ninth rank. But they were killed by someone. That person killed my parents.”

“Who killed them?” Linley was puzzled.

“The Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon. And the earth-style Grand Magus Saint, Rudi.” Bebe ground his fangs as he spoke.

Linley was stunned.

He immediately thought back to the battle between Saints which occurred at Wushan township when he was eight. Linley clearly remembered hearing those two Saints angrily shout at each other. The Warrior Saint was Dillon! And the Grand Magus Saint was Rudi.

“They killed your parents?” Linley pondered for a moment.

Because of that battle, Linley had actually been injured in the head as he was protecting his little brother Wharton. Blood had flowed onto the Coiling Dragon ring, thus allowing Grandpa Doehring to come out of the Coiling Dragon ring. Only then had he embarked on the path of a magus. After training for nearly half a year, he had discovered Bebe within one of the abandoned courtyards of his residence.

“Half a year…right. Given Bebe’s growing speed, half a year after being born, he probably would’ve developed from an infant size to the size he was when I first saw him.”

In terms of time or location, it all fit.

Linley had been puzzled at the time. Why had two Saints come to do battle at Wushan township? Now, it seemed, the truth was it had something to do with Bebe’s parents.

“Why did they kill your parents?” Linley asked.

Bebe didn’t answer directly. “Boss, the Forest of Darkness is the lair for all rat-type magical beasts. Although the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts has many rat-type magical beasts, it can’t compare to the number in the Forest of Darkness.” Linley nodded inwardly when he heard this. Rat-type magical beasts were highly adept at reproducing in large numbers.

Wherever magical beasts congregated, there would be rat swarms as well.

“Although it doesn’t have that many, there’s still over ten million of them.” Bebe said. Even just a part of the total number in the Forest of Darkness reached the hundreds of millions, while the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts only had ten million. The difference was plain to see.

Bebe continued, “In the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, there aren’t any Saint-level rats. The leader of those ten million rats were my parents, a Stoneater Rat and a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank.”

Linley and Delia both understood.

It made sense for there to be roughly a single pair of rats of the ninth rank, amongst a swarm of ten million.

“The Stellar Sword Saint Dillon and that Grand Magus Saint Rudi both wanted to tame magical beasts for themselves. The Stellar Sword Saint Dillon discovered my parents, and thus wanted to tame them. After all, taming them meant taming a swarm of ten million rats.” Bebe’s eyes were burning with hate.

Linley, on the other hand, understood how Dillon had felt.

A rat swarm of ten million rats could match an army of millions of soldiers in power. Although a Black Dragon of the ninth rank was technically equal in rank to a Stoneater Rat or a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, most likely most experts would rather choose the Stoneater Rat or the Shadowmouse as their tamed companions.

“Unfortunately, my mother was pregnant at the time.” Bebe ground his fangs. “Rat Kings are very proud. My father, relying on his tough defense, went to block the Stellar Sword Saint Dillon and allow my mother to flee.”

The defense of Stoneater Rats was quite terrifying. One of the ninth rank would be hard for even an average Saint to kill.

“My father was a Rat King. Naturally, the Stellar Sword Saint wanted to tame him, and so my father and him began to fight. But my father refused to submit, and kept on fighting with him…but in the end, my father was killed by the Stellar Sword Saint.” Bebe sobbed.

One could imagine how arrogant and proud a Rat King who commanded a rat swarm was.

He had delayed as long as he could, to allow Bebe’s mother time to flee.

“Shadowmice are famous for their speed. My mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, and she was very fast. Even though she was pregnant, she managed to flee out of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts while my father fought with Dillon and fled to the west, eventually arriving at Wushan township.”

Linley now understood.

“My mother was perhaps afraid that I would be attacked, so she utilized the mageforce in her body to give birth to me prematurely.” Bebe’s eyes were welling with tears. “Grandpa Beirut said that when we ‘Godeater Rats’ were born in the normal course of things, I should have had the power of a magical beast of the sixth or seventh rank upon being born.”

Linley was puzzled.

Godeater Rat?

What type of race was this? Was this Bebe’s race?

But seeing the mental state Bebe was in, Linley didn’t interrupt him, saving the question for later.

“After giving birth to me prematurely, my mother’s body was internally wounded. In that sort of situation, my mother instructed me to stay in that ruined courtyard and not to run around. As an infant, nobody knew anything about me, so I was to just eat rocks there and quietly grow up.”

“My mother told me that she was of the Beirut clan, and that I was also a member of the Beirut clan.”

Bebe was torn between rage and grief. “For the sake of not letting me come to harm, she left me there, then continued to flee to the west. But unfortunately…at that time, she ran into the Grand Magus Saint, Rudi. Rudi naturally chased after my mother as well, planning to take her as his own magical beast companion.”

Linley could completely imagine what that scene had been like.

“My mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank, but having just given birth to me, her power had dropped dramatically. She ran east as fast as she could, but at that time, Dillon arrived as well. Dillon, being a warrior, was able to rely on certain speed techniques to seize my mother.” Bebe grew agitated and angry. “And then, that Dillon and Rudi, for the sake of fighting over who the Shadowmouse of the ninth rank belonged to, began to battle.”

Linley completely understood now.

The Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, had captured the Shadowmouse, but Rudi had wanted to take it from him. The two Saints battled in the eastern skies above Wushan township, which had been a catastrophe to the people of Wushan township. Even Wharton had nearly been crushed to death, but fortunately, Linley had protected him.

And Linley had been fortunate enough to have the Coiling Dragon ring be blood-bound to him as a result.

“Right.” Linley still recalled how, in his youth, he had heard the Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, shout angrily, “Rudi, if I can’t have it, then you won’t either!”

And then, Dillon’s hands had suddenly glowed with light, and the sound of a terrifying explosion had rocked the world.

“Right. Shadowmice are physically small. In battle, they can enlarge themselves slightly, but normally, they are like Bebe, roughly twenty centimeters or so, the size of a palm.” Linley knew the complete truth now.

At the time, Bebe’s mother had been in Dillon’s palm. But at that time, Dillon was over a kilometer away from Linley. Linley couldn’t even make out Dillon’s figure, much less what Dillon was holding in his hands.

Shadowmice were famed for their speed and their attack, but their defense wasn’t all that powerful, far weaker than Stoneater Rats.

When the Saint-level Dillon had exploded forth his battle-qi, a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank who had been weakened dramatically by childbirth had of course been easily killed.

“So the truth comes out!”

Linley understood everything now. He knew why those two Saints had come to the eastern skies of Wushan township to do battle. At the time, when Dillon had angrily shouted, “Rudi, if I can’t have it, you can’t either!” He was referring to Bebe’s mother.

Half a year after that battle…

Linley had encountered Bebe.

And then, the legendary adventures of Linley and Bebe had begun.

“No wonder. No wonder.” Linley now also understood why Bebe said his enemies were Rudi and Dillon. If it wasn’t for Dillon, Bebe’s father wouldn’t have died. And if it hadn’t been for Rudi…perhaps Bebe’s mother wouldn’t have been forced to her death as well.

Linley looked at Bebe.

Bebe’s eyes were filled with tears. He furiously said, “Those two bastards, I’ll definitely kill them!”

“Hrm?” Linley suddenly was filled with all sorts of questions.

Bebe’s father was a Stoneater Rat of the ninth rank, while his mother was a Shadowmouse of the ninth rank. Why was Bebe so powerful? Bebe didn’t seem like a Stoneater Rat or a Shadowmouse. He had easily reached an extremely high level of power, and he was continuing to grow stronger.

In addition…

Only Dillon and Rudi should have known what happened back then, as well as Bebe’s dead parents.

But how was it that upon returning from the Forest of Darkness, Bebe knew all this? How did that Deity in the Forest of Darkness know all of these things? Could it be that the spiritual power of the Deity was so great that it could even stretch over ten thousand kilometers, from the Forest of Darkness to Wushan township?

Even if it could…

Could it be that a Deity was able to maintain such a dispersal of spiritual power for so long? If he had discovered this at that time, why hadn’t he saved Bebe’s parents?

“Bebe, how did you learn this?” Linley immediately asked. Delia was looking at Bebe in puzzlement as well.

“Grandpa Beirut told me.” Bebe replied.

Linley asked questioningly, “This Lord Beirut…even though he is a Deity, he shouldn’t have the ability to look into the past. How did he know about this? And it seems he knows all the details.”

Bebe explained, “Boss, it’s like this. After Grandpa Beirut discovered me, he sent the Violet-Gold Rat Kings to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. First, they questioned the members of the rat swarm, and then Grandpa Beirut personally scanned the memories of Dillon and Rudi.”

“What?!” Linley and Delia both let out cries of shock.

Memory?!

A Grand Magus Saint like Zassler was able to read memories, true, but after doing so, the affected person’s soul would be destroyed and he would die. However…the Stellar Sword Saint, Dillon, was perfectly well and alive. He had even been beaten by Olivier years later.

In addition, if Dillon and Rudi had died, that would have been a major event. Linley definitely would’ve heard about this.

“Grandpa Beirut is very powerful.” Bebe explained. “He said that anyone not at the Deity level wouldn’t be able to hide any of memories in front of him. Even Saints would have their memories read without them knowing about it at all.”

Linley didn’t dare believe it.

This…this was too terrifying!

Even Saints wouldn’t be able to notice? Linley absolutely refused to believe a Demigod was capable of such a power.

“Grandpa Beirut is the number one expert of the entire Yulan continent plane.” Bebe explained. “The absolute, unquestioned number one expert. Even the War God and the High Priest have to listen to Grandpa. Even that Planar Overseer, Hodan, doesn’t dare to offend Grandpa Beirut.”

“Grandpa Beirut is the true King of the plane of the Yulan continent.” Bebe continued.

Linley and Delia exchanged a glance. Linley suddenly remembered the words that the three Violet-Gold Rat Kings had said to Bebe when they had invited him to come with them. They had also said the same thing. Lord Beirut was the King of the Yulan continent!

“Grandpa Beirut was the very first Godeater Rat in all the planes of the universe! Even the very name, ‘Godeater Rat’ was chosen by Grandpa Beirut himself.” Bebe said proudly. “And I, in the countless planes of the universe, I am the second Godeater Rat!”