Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

The massive trees rose high into the skies, and brambles and vines could be seen everywhere. Some particularly enormous rattans hung from large tree branches, and vicious, brutal magical beasts were hidden everywhere within this primal forest. The Forest of Darkness had existed for simply too long. The ground was covered with an extremely thick layer of leaves.

A man who had resplendent golden hair was walking atop the leaves, making ‘crunch’ sounds with each step.

“Whew!”

The gold-haired man’s chest heaved as he let out a long sigh.

“This mission…jeeze…” The gold-haired man felt very resigned. He had received Hanbritt’s orders to go to this place, the Forest of Darkness, to pay a visit to Lord Beirut.

From Hanbritt, he had also learned…

This Beirut was a Highgod!

“I’m a Demigod. Lord Beirut could kill me with a flip of his hand.” The gold-haired man felt somewhat worried in his heart. “I don’t know if that Lord Beirut has any enmities with Lord Adkins. Even if he does, I pray that he won’t vent his spleen on a minor figure like myself.”

He exited the dense forest, arriving at a wide, empty grassy area.

In the center of this grassy area was a metallic castle.

“Kuchai [Ku’chai] comes to pay his respects to Lord Beirut!” The golden-haired man said loudly, standing in front of the metallic castle while bowing respectfully.

“Is there something you need?” A gravelly voice rang out directly into the golden-haired youth’s mind.

Kuchai immediately raised his head, but he didn’t see anyone nearby, only that cold, metallic castle in front of him. Kuchai understood that Lord Beirut disdained to meet him, and so had only reached out with divine sense. Kuchai hurriedly bowed and said, “Lord Beirut, I was lucky enough to escape from the Gebados Planar Prison, and I have heard of the Necropolis of the Gods. I don’t know if I can enter the Necropolis of the Gods?”

Right.

What Adkins had ordered him to do was for him, a Demigod, to investigate what Beirut’s attitude towards opening the Necropolis of the Gods again was.

“Enter the Necropolis of the Gods? Yes, you can!” Beirut’s gravelly voice rang out.

The golden-haired youngster’s eyes were instantly filled with delight.

“Only, the Necropolis of the Gods is only opened once a millennium. If you want to enter it, come again after waiting a thousand years.” Beirut’s reply instantly made Kuchai somewhat flabbergasted.

“Enough. You can leave now.” Beirut said calmly.

“Lord Beirut, can’t you open it earlier?” Kuchai said respectfully.

“I told you to leave!” Beirut’s voice rang out once more.

Kucha’s heart shivered. He knew that the consequences of irritating a Highgod were extremely grave. No longer daring to say anything else, he immediately paid his respects, “Thank you, Lord Beirut.” And then, Kuchai immediately left the metallic castle.

Within the metallic castle.

Beirut stroked his black beard, letting out a snicker. “This Adkins. He actually sent a Demigod to investigate. Could it be that he thinks that coming personally is too much trouble? Hmph. Fine, then, Adkins. I’ll toy with you a bit.” Beirut’s eyes had a hint of ridicule within them.

And then, Beirut broadcast out his divine sense in all directions like a wave.

“The Deities who are still here at the Yulan continent, the Necropolis of the Gods is opened only once every millennium, and it has just been opened not too long ago. Those of you who wish to enter the Necropolis of the Gods must wait a thousand years…also, there is a limit to the number of people who will be granted entry. Only the strong will be allowed in.”

A hint of a mocking smile on his face, Beirut sent this message to every single Deity within the Yulan continent.

“It seems the coming days will be amusing, now.” Beirut’s smile was very bright.

Beirut’s message rang out in Adkins’ mind, along with the others. Adkins, who had been within a side hall of the imperial palace, teasing and cavorting with a bewitching beauty, suddenly came to a halt. “Baby, you can go back for now. Tonight, I’ll come looking for you again.”

“Yes, milord.” The golden-haired beauty smiled, then retreated.

Adkins began to consider Beirut’s divine sense message.

“Lord Adkins.” The silver-haired elder entered the side hall as well.

“Barnas, you came.” Adkins smiled and nodded. “You should have heard the message just now from Beirut as well.”

Originally, Adkins had three Gods under his control. Now, of course, with Ojwin on his side, he had four. But the person whom Adkins trusted was this man in front of him, Barnas. The likes of that silver-haired youngster, Hanbritt, was very nervous in front of Adkins.

But when Barnas and Adkins chatted, it was as though they were just friends.

“According to what Beirut said, and based on what we know, this once-per-millennium rule should be true. To us, a thousand years is nothing much…Lord Adkins, let’s just wait a thousand years. After a thousand years, we’ll enter the Necropolis of the Gods.” The silver-haired old man said.

Adkins frowned, his elegant, slender nose wrinkling. “A thousand years…”

“If I have to wait, I’ll wait. I’m enjoying myself in the mortal world right now anyhow.” Adkins said with a calm smile. “Only, that fellow Beirut really is quite cocky. He relies on the power of the Sovereign backing him up, and even goes as far as to say the number of slots is limited for entering the Necropolis of the Gods. Jeeze. Hmph!”

Adkins let out a cold, disdainful snort.

He had a very bad view of Beirut, but Adkins wasn’t completely confident in his ability to kill Beirut. After all, Beirut might have a Sovereign artifact.

“Haha…” The silver-haired old man laughed. “Lord Adkins, the powerful will enter, right? As long as he lets people in, who in the entire Yulan continent is more qualified than you, milord? The limited list has no impact on you whatsoever, milord.”

Adkins laughed and nodded.

He was a Highgod.

Beirut was the caretaker of the Necropolis of the Gods, and naturally wouldn’t go inside it himself. Aside from Beirut, who in the entire Yulan continent was as powerful as him, Adkins?

Within the imperial palace of the Yulan Empire, within an enormous hot tub that was dozens of meters long.

A tall, thin, brown-haired youth was lying naked in the hot tub. This sort of hot tub was something which only the most highly ranked nobles could enjoy. On the other side of the hot tub, there were many people constantly adding firewood to the fire below it, maintaining its temperature.

The hot air simmered.

The brown-haired youth was like a spirit within the mists.

“A thousand years? Then I’ll wait. The environment of the Yulan continent is not bad at all. It’s much better than the Gebados Planar Prison, at least, where one would never know when a life-threatening problem would occur.” The brown-haired youngster let out a sigh.

Within the Yulan continent, the likes of Highgods such as Adkins, the Gods who had taken over the various alliances and others Empires, the Gods who had hidden themselves elsewhere, and the Demigods who served those Gods, were willing to remain in the Yulan continent due to their desire for the treasures held within it.

Within Dragonblood Castle.

Linley continued to live a quiet life of training. Generally, Linley would rest for one day out of every seven, and he would spend some time with little Arnold, or go chat with Reynolds, Dylin, and the others. But of course, the rest of the time, Linley was hard at work training.

His divine clone lived within Dragonblood Castle, while Linley’s original body remained within the pocket dimension, focusing on training in the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’.

In truth, it didn’t make a difference which one was where. After all, the soul of the two were the same.

Within the pocket dimension.

“The most important thing is to strengthen the soul of the original body. As for that divine clone, all it really needs is to refine that Golden Soul-Pearl.” The Golden Soul-Pearl which Linley had acquired from the Grand Warlock was actually formed from twenty million soul essences.

Linley had allowed his divine clone to absorb those twenty million soul essences.

And…

Within Beaumont’s ring, there had been millions of already successfully refined soul essences, as well as nearly a hundred million unrefined soul essences. Linley was planning to utilize the Coiling Dragon ring to absorb them all with his original body.

Beaumont originally had intended for Chiquita to help him refine those souls. Although Chiquita was innately capable of refining souls, his strength was far lower than that of the Grand Warlock’s. No matter how innately gifted he was, his speed in refining these souls was only on par with the Grand Warlock’s at most.

In just a few short months, Chiquita had only been able to refine a few million souls.

Beaumont normally would just give Chiquita a portion of the souls. After Chiquita finished refining them, he would give him another portion. The vast majority of the souls were all stored within Beaumont’s interspatial ring.

The Coiling Dragon ring swallowed all of the soul into itself at one ago, including the soul essences. Instantly…

Countless soul essences were now floating around within the Coiling Dragon ring, and those countless golden threads were being absorbed into Linley’s soul. Linley’s original body’s soul was currently growing at an astonishing rate. The more powerful the soul grew, the faster it absorbed as well.

Towards the later stages, Linley’s soul improvement speed was simply astonishing.

Only, the amount of soul essences he was consuming was also astonishing.

Nearly a hundred million soul essences!

“Those twenty million soul essences had allowed my soul to grow more than ten times as powerful as it had been previously. A hundred million soul essences…” Linley couldn’t help but sigh in amazement. Actually, Linley could tell how much more powerful his soul had become, just based on his visualization speed for the Throbbing Pulse of the World.

Originally, when he had become a Deity, the natural laws of the universe had descended.

Linley’s soul had been bathed within the natural Laws of the world, and there was an instant…where Linley’s soul had suddenly changed. This was actually a benefit every single person who became a Deity on their own would experience.

That transformation caused Linley’s visualization ability to increase more than ten times. After having drained those twenty million soul essences, his visualization speed had increased yet again. The two complimentary boosts had increased his speed a hundredfold, allowing him to, in three short months, advance from the 64 Fused Waves to the 32 Fused Waves level.

From the 32 Fused Waves to the 16 Fused Waves, he had taken one year and three months.

Over the course of Linley’s absorption of those hundred million souls, his visualization speed had been constantly increasing.

“My visualization ability has increased dramatically. The amount of time I will need to break through to the Eight Fused Waves level should be much less now, as well.”

Linley’s original body’s soul was clearly many times more powerful than the soul of his divine clone, even after the divine clone had also absorbed a Golden Soul-Pearl. Actually…a reason for this was because Linley wanted to complete his insights on the ‘Throbbing Pulse of the World’ as quickly as possible. And the second reason was that his original body, upon once more reaching the Deity level, would have its soul split in two yet again.

Thus, the stronger his original body’s soul was, the better.

Within the garden of Dragonblood Castle.

Linley, Dylin, Tarosse, the War God, and the others were all gathered together. Not long ago, they too had heard Beirut’s instructions.

“A thousand years?” Tarosse sighed. “Even Adkins is staying in the Yulan continent. Clearly, his target is the Necropolis of the Gods. There will definitely be many experts taking part in that next opening in a thousand years. Everyone, are you planning to go in a thousand years later as well?”

“Of course.” The War God was the first to speak.

On this trip to the Necropolis of the Gods, the War God had not acquired a divine God spark. This caused the War God to feel rather disgruntled. After all, his old foe, the High Priest, Catherine, had successfully acquired a divine God spark.

“Linley, Olivier, what about you two?” Tarosse looked at Olivier and Linley.

“A thousand years later?” Linley laughed, not replying.

“Might go in. Might not.” This was Olivier’s reply.

Tarosse stared. “Olivier, what sort of an answer is this? ‘Might go in, might not’. Those were the only two options to begin with. You might as well have given no answer at all.”

“What I meant was…” Olivier said seriously. “If in a thousand years, I am still in the Yulan Plane, I’ll go to the Necropolis of the Gods. If by then, I have already gone to other planes, then naturally I won’t be able to enter the Necropolis of the Gods again.”

“Go to other planes?” The War God was rather puzzled. “In other planes, you’ll be nothing more than a Demigod with no background. Do you think you’ll be able to make a good life for yourself in the Higher Planes or the Divine Planes?”

The countless material planes and Higher Planes had all been in existence for far too long.

The Higher Planes had powerful forces, clans, and even some Empires. Without any connections or background there, it was better to stay in the Yulan continent. For example, the Yulan continent had the Necropolis of the Gods, something which many experts desired to enter.

“Linley, why don’t you say whether or not you’ll go in?” Dylin looked at Linley.

“What’s the point of discussing it now? A thousand years is too far off into the distance…” Linley let out a sigh. He hadn’t been training for even a century yet. A thousand years? That was indeed too long.

Dylin, Tarosse, and the War God were instantly speechless.

Only now did they remember that Linley had only spent a few decades before reaching the Demigod level. Comparatively speaking…a thousand years later, who knew what Linley would be like?