Book 16 - The Starmist Sea - 5 – That Powerful Man
And yet, this Bates was claiming that someone dared to fly in that sort of situation?
“Haha, Bates, is it that you dodged this tribulation and thus were so overjoyed that you started to spout nonsense? You saw that Fogsea Storm as well. Even extremely powerful Highgods capable of withstanding this sort of lightning wouldn’t be so wild as to fly in the air.” A green-haired Fiend laughed while speaking.
Linley and the others all nodded slightly.
In this sort of environment, most likely only someone as powerful as a Seven Star Fiend or an Asura would dare fly.
“If you don’t believe me, then forget it.” Bates chuckled, clearly not caring. “But I definitely didn’t see wrongly just now. I don’t believe that I was just seeing things.” As a God, how could he be seeing things?
“Boss, it’s just flying in lightning. You and I can both do that. What’s the big deal?” Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind. “So what if that thunder hit me? What can it do? When we were in the castle of sand, Boss, you were hit by that Highgod’s full-power lightning attack but weren’t hurt at all.”
Linley laughed.
Lightning bolts?
His original body had first absorbed a drop of that golden blood, and then absorbed that drop of liquefied Sovereign’s Might as well as its powerful energy. His body was so mighty that it had already exceeded most Highgod artifacts. Linley was actually confident as well in his ability to resist those lightning bolts.
“Bebe, make sure you don’t start bragging.” Linley sent to him.
Bebe chortled. “Got it, Boss. I’m not that sort of person who brags wildly.” The two chatted through their spiritual link, and so others couldn’t overhear.
“I also saw that just now, someone was indeed flying within the lightning.” Suddenly, a voice rang out.
“Oh?”
Linley couldn’t help but be surprised. He turned to look. Not just Linley; the other luckily surviving Fiends also turned to look. The speaker was that young bald Highgod. He nodded and said, “And I saw clearly that on his back, he had a saber or a heavy sword type of heavy weapon.”
The bald youth was a Highgod. His words were much more convincing than Bates’.
“There really was a person?”
“If Lord Boff [Bo’fei] said it was so, how could it not be?” Someone immediately replied.
“How would I, Bates, lie about this? Even Lord Boff says the same.” Bates immediately was rather self-delighted.
The bald youth was named ‘Boff’. The bald youth turned to look at Bates, staring at him. “Bates, just now, there were countless bolts of lightning descending. That was a life and death moment. I was confident, which is why I was able to be slightly distracted and look at my surroundings. In that sort of situation, how could you also be paying attention to the distance?”
Bates was startled.
At a critical moment, how could he dare be distracted?
Bates laughed in a silly manner, his beard fluttering up. “I only look into the distance after dodging past through bolts of lightning. Only, at that time, the person had already flown far away. That’s why I didn’t see clearly, only that he had a weapon on his back.”
“Oh.” The bald youth said.
“Alright, everyone. We all safely passed through this trial, which is a source of joy. Haha...but we still need to continue on our journey.” The employer, Aches, chuckled. At the same time, the metallic lifeform which had transformed into a rhomboid ship once more appeared on the sea.
Linley and the others immediately entered the metallic lifeform.
“Swoosh!” The metallic lifeform immediately broke through the waves and advanced.
Within the metallic lifeform, the Fiends were all in an excellent mood after having survived. All of them were loudly laughing, drinking wine, and chatting. The walls of the hall were all translucent, and so everyone could look through the metal walls to see the sea outside. Currently, the surface of the sea was still faintly crackling with electric sparks, but the power was clearly much weaker now.
“How is it that in the center of the vortex, there is still lightning crashing down?” At the side of the main hall, Olivier, staring at the outside, suddenly spoke.
“There’s still lightning?”
Linley and the others immediately turned to look. Through the translucent metal, they could immediately see that in the location which had been the center of the vortex, the vortex had already disappeared, but in the location above that spot, thick bolts of lightning were crashing down wildly at one location.
The metallic lifeform constantly advanced forward, drawing closer and closer to that location.
“How truly odd. I’ve never heard of lightning continuously striking down after a Fogsea Storm.” Immediately, people began to murmur, although none of them were worried for their safety, because the lightning was concentrated on one spot. There’s no way it would hit them.
Linley suddenly stared.
“Someone’s there!” As they drew near, Linley immediately discovered that in the area where the lightning was continuously crashing down, there was a man standing on the surface of the sea.
The distance was too great, and Linley could only just barely make out his figure. The thick bolts of lightning crashed down, but the figure didn’t dodge at all.
“Ah, there’s someone beneath the lightning!” Others discovered as well.
“That’s the location where the center of the vortex had been. The lightning is so powerful...not even those legendary Seven Star Fiends should be able to take on that lightning head on.” The other Fiends were shocked. However, they had all only heard of Seven Star Fiends; after all, meeting a Seven Star Fiend was extremely rare.
“Hey, Aches, hurry up and go closer and let us take a look?” Immediately, everyone began to urge him.
In the Infernal Realm, everyone worshipped strong experts. Someone who dared to stand in the middle of a Fogsea Storm and actually draw lightning bolts down upon himself was definitely someone worthy of adoration. Aches said magnanimously, “Fine, I’ll immediately direct the metallic lifeform over. However...at most, we’ll draw within one kilometer. Any closer, and we’ll probably irritate that lord.”
As he spoke, the metallic lifeform headed closer towards that location.
One kilometer’s distance, for Deities, was extremely close. Deities could clearly see an ant at that distance.
Currently, bolts of thunder that seemed as thick as a hundred lightning bolts combined were constantly crashing down upon that person in the sea. That person was thin, but he stood there, ramrod straight. His pitch black long hair fell to his shoulders, and it casually fluttered in the wind.
Linley could clearly tell that this person was carrying a warblade, and his head was raised as he stared towards the lightning.
“Crackle...”
Countless bolts of lightning crashed viciously upon his forehead, and then crackled across his entire body. However, the man just stood there unmoving like a mountain. Occasionally, his eyes would emit two rays of cold, netherworldly scarlet lightning which would crash into the fogs up above, causing the lightning descending from the fog to grow even stronger.
“So powerful!” Linley’s heart clenched.
The power of the crashing lightning caused even space itself to shudder, but that person was completely unharmed.
Everyone in the metallic lifeform was holding their breaths. An expert like this was too frightening.
“Firing lightning from his eyes?” Linley began to understand. This person should be a person who trained in the Laws of Lightning.
“He should be someone who trains in the Laws of Lightning.” The calm Olivier spoke out.
The others were all startled into wakefulness, and the big-bearded Bates nodded as well. “Lightning, after crashing down, would normally dissipate, but this person is constantly attacking the sea of fogs, drawing down ‘punishment’ from the sea of fogs time and time again...but as far as I can tell, he seems to be enjoying the punishment.”
“He is training.” The bald youth, Boff, said.
Everyone nodded.
For someone who trained in the Laws of Lightning to come personally experience the powerful lightning bolts of a Fogsea Storm was indeed an excellent training method. However, this sort of training method was generally only doable by a powerful expert.
“Let’s go.” The employer, Aches, laughed hurriedly. “All we are doing is watching him as he stands there. If his lordship finishes his training and sees us here, if he is angry, we’ll all be in trouble.” As he spoke, Aches ordered his metallic lifeform to leave.
Everyone began to laugh.
Experts had their own pride. Unless there was some sort of special situation, they would rarely vent their anger on weaker people.
The light of the Blood Sun slightly penetrated the thin fog, shining downwards. The waves billowed, and the metallic lifeform rode the wind, breaking through the waves and advancing.
Linley and Delia were seated at the head of the ship.
“It’s been two years since we’ve entered the sea. In the sea, there are far fewer bandits than on the continents.” Linley sighed. “On the Redbud Continent, every so often, we’ll run into bandit teams. In the Starmist Sea, however, we’ll only run into them once every two months.”
Delia nodded.
And then, Delia laughed. “Linley, you really are such a jinx. Whatever you mention ends up happening.”
“What?” Linley turned to look as well.
Indeed, in the distance, beneath the waters of the sea, there were figures floating. At the same time, an enormous, fierce green python that would require three or four men to wrap their arms around it broke out of the surface of the sea. It was at least a hundred meters along. This giant python, comparable to the size of a massive dragon, came smashing towards the metallic lifeform, which immediately halted.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head. With a flip of his hand...
“Roaaaar!” A ten meter high earthen yellow bear appeared out of nowhere. The great bear grabbed that green python, bellowing as it ripped the python into two pieces.
Actually, the only reason why the opponents had created this elemental construct was to make the metallic lifeform come to a halt.
“Heh heh, I didn’t expect us to encounter bandits. The Starmist Sea is incredibly boring. Finally, something interesting has come.” Laughter rang out from within the metallic lifeform as quite a few Fiends came running out.
An entire group of Fiends were outside the metallic lifeform.
Right at this moment, a hundred figures were hovering in front of the metallic lifeform. Only, they immediately noticed Delia.
“A Highgod Fiend?” The hundred bandits immediately felt that the situation had become thorny.
“Hey, why are you afraid? Are you afraid just because you saw we have two Highgod Fiends?” The big-bearded Bates was the type of person who only feared the world was too orderly, and thus he called loudly.
Linley’s group of four was very relaxed. These hundred plus figures didn’t have a single Highgod amongst them. They posed no threat at all.
“Disperse.” The leader, a balding man with fish scales on his forehead growled.
Right at this moment...
Linley and quite a few others could sense a terrifying power, and they immediately turned to look. Only, Linley’s group only saw a bolt of lightning crash down from the heavens, surrounding a person. Linley found out, to his amazement, “It is him!” It was the expert whom they had encountered a year ago, who had taken on the lightning bolts of the Fogsea Storm head on.
At the same instant this figure descended, his right fist smashed down hard from the air.
“Bang!”
The fist smashed into the empty air, but a terrifying explosive sound rang out, while at the same time, with the fist at the center, circles of ripples spread out, forming curved lines which twisted, passing by Linley’s group and striking that group of bandits who had wanted to flee.
Silently...
All of the bandits who were struck trembled, and then fell down and slowly sank into the water.
With one attack, over a hundred bandits had all died!
Aches, Bates, and the others all stared, slack-jawed. Linley had seen Elquin, Bluefire, the juvenile amethyst beast, and other powerful experts, and so he had quite a bit more experience than them. Naturally, he wasn’t too shocked. Only, Linley was puzzled. “In the Infernal Realm, there are an uncountable number of bandits. Generally speaking, experts can’t be bothered to deal with them. But this person...why?”
This was indeed puzzling.
At the same time, Linley took a careful look at this person, who was now close to them. His face seemed to have been sculpted by a carving knife, and his gaze was as fierce as a blade. He himself gave off a baleful, sharp aura, and every single strand of hair seemed like a thin strand of steel. As they fluttered in the wind, they actually carried a strange sound with them.
The man lowered his head, glancing down at the sinking corpses of the bandits, sneering coldly. “Bandits and thieves all deserve death!”
After speaking, the man moved, once more flying into the fog above and moving at high speed through the fog. Everyone who entered the fog would suffer the attack of lightning bolts, and so wherever this figure passed, countless lightning bolts flashed.
“His speed is so fast. He is so powerful.” Olivier said softly.
The group of Fiends came to their senses moments later.
“Ahhh! All those bandit corpses are sinking. So many divine sparks and interspatial rings!” The big-bearded Bates immediately howled in grief, and all the other Fiends only now realized this as well. However, all of the corpses had sunk down long ago.
There were quite a few people living at the bottom of the seas as well. To Deities, being in the water or on the land didn’t make much of a difference.
The Fiends immediately began to regret it.
“Haha, if they’re gone, then forget about them. Look at all of you. Haha, let’s head off.” Aches laughed. “The sea region up ahead has an extremely powerful bandit force. They live there, on Knifeblade Island. Let’s make sure we take a roundabout path away from that damn place.”
As he spoke, Aches once more took control over the metallic lifeform, which headed out at high speed!
Right now, though, Linley was still thinking about that man’s appearance. “This expert who trains in the Laws of Lightning should have the power of a Seven Star Fiend.” Linley calculated silently.