Chapter 22 – Passing Away

Book 7, Heaven and Earth Turned Upside Down – Chapter 22, Passing Away “Haaah!” The six Special Executors simultaneously stomped the ground viciously, and suddenly the light around them penetrated the earth. Bebe, who had just burrowed into the earth, struck against the white light and was immediately knocked back. “Whoosh!” At the same time, the six Special Executors retreated at high speed, suddenly expanding the area within the glowing white hexagram. With each leap, Linley was usually only able to travel a few dozen meters to a hundred meters at most. In the end, he still had to fall to the ground after all. As for the Soaring Technique…. Under the current conditions, he simply didn’t have enough time to utter the incantations necessary to cast the Soaring Technique. “Haaaaah!” Bebe didn’t dare to touch the glowing white hexagram the six Special Executors had created again. Bebe jumped up in the air as well. At this time, five of the Special Executors suddenly rose into the air as well. Of those five, four rose to the same height in the air as Linley, while the last one rose above Linley. “Whoa!” One person was above him, four were around him, and one was underneath him. Glowing with white light, the six Special Executors had formed a totally air-tight octahedron, keeping Linley and Bebe totally sealed in within. “What the hell is this?” Linley was rather stunned. Doehring Cowart’s voice sounded out in Linley’s mind. “This special combination attack of these Special Executors of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal consumes an enormous amount of light-style battle-qi. But perhaps they have some secret treasures of the Radiant Temple on them. Five thousand years ago, the Radiant Temple didn’t possess such mysterious, agile combination attacks. Even if they practiced the same type of battle-qi, every person’s battle-qi would have fine, minute differences. To be able to totally combine battle-qi like these six Special Executors were doing, to the point of even being able to transform their battle-qi to dramatically increase its power was virtually impossible. But the Radiant Temple had succeeded. “Whoosh.” Above, below, front and back, left and right. These six Special Executors flew towards Linley simultaneously at high speed. All six of them were wielding very thin, slender longswords. No place to dodge! “Boss.” Bebe was frantic. Linley mentally roared, “Bebe, let’s go all out against the one below us. If we can kill one of them, this formation will be broken.” “Got it.” Linley and Bebe, man and magical beast, began to fall at high speeds, launching simultaneous attacks against the combatant of the ninth rank beneath them. But the combatant of the ninth rank didn’t seem to be afraid at all. On the contrary, his lips quirked up slightly, a hint of disdain and mockery on his face. “Thruuuum.” The white light flowed at high speeds. The light dimmed from the other five Special Executors, while the light from the one below began to blaze like the sun. Launching off from the ground, this Special Executor chopped towards Linley and Bebe with his sword. “Ah!” Ignoring everything else, Linley struck out with his draconic tail, risking everything to try and constrict the Special Executor. “Slash!” The sword chopped against Linley’s chest. Linley only felt an incomparable degree of pain, and his protective scales instantly began to crack. It felt as though an iron rod that had been heated until it was glowing white had been pressed against his skin, causing such pain that Linley’s entire body began to twitch, but he continued to constrict the Special Executor with his draconic tail. Fresh blood began to flow from Linley’s wound. The scales of the Armored Razorback Wyrm weren’t able to block this sword. “That sword blow’s power was only a bit weaker than the power of a Saint-level expert.” Doehring Cowart was astonished as well. After entering their combination attack formation, the attacks of the Special Executors could reach an incredible level of power. The Radiant Temple was confident that unless the opponent was a Saint-level combatant, this formation attack would always be victorious! “Ah!” The draconic tail gripping the Special Executor suddenly came under assault by that powerful light-style battle-qi. Linley felt enormous pain coming from his tail, but Linley continued to go all out, risking everything to constrict this opponent. Those dark golden eyes stared fixedly at the Special Executor. “Hmph.” The Special Executor let out a cold laugh. “Bam.” White light exploded forth from the Special Executor, and Linley’s draconic tail uncontrollably slackened. Linley’s constrictive power simply wasn’t able to overcome the opponent’s counterattack. At this time, the other five Special Executors came charging at Linley as well. “Boss!” Bebe kicked off from Linley’s shoulders, charging directly towards those five Special Executors. But on his very first attack, Bebe was struck simultaneously by all five swords, and his body was knocked back downwards. “Bebe!” Linley said worriedly. “Boss, I’m fine.” Bebe flipped to his feet, but a hint of blood could be seen on his firm, tough fur. However, Bebe’s defense really was remarkably powerful. He barely suffered any damage to his skin and fur. These six Special Executors stared at Bebe in astonishment. Too monstrous. Even that hadn’t been able to pierce the skin of this Shadowmouse? As far as the Special Executors were concerned, even magical beasts of the ninth rank should have their defensive armor and skin be pierced by that blow. Even someone with defense as monstrously powerful as Linley saw the scales over his chest crack and split from a single blow. “The target is Linley!” The six of them knew that killing this monster of a Shadowmouse would probably force them to use quite some effort, but killing Linley would be much easier. A single sword had been able to penetrate his defenses. Thus, a few sword strikes should be enough to kill him. “What on earth is going on?! Their light-style battle-qi seems to be limitless!” Linley mentally roared with fury, as he swept his claws to attack the Special Executors who were charging towards him. “Shkreeeee!” Bebe’s piercing screech rang out as well. Light wrapped around their bodies, the six Special Executors did a pincer attack against Linley and Bebe, while Linley and Bebe used all their force to try and counterattack. “BAM!!!” A wild series of attacks. Both sides totally ignored their defense, only focusing on attacking. The six Special Executors retreated at high speed. More than half of Linley’s black scales were shattered now, revealing multiple wounds beneath. Fresh blood oozed out past the scales, and even the scales on Linley’s tail were shattered. Linley wasn’t able to suppress the fresh blood which had risen to his throat, and he vomited it out. “Their defense…” Linley was truly angry and frantic now. He had finally met people whose defensive powers were even greater than his own. These six Special Executors were using light-style battle-qi in an extravagantly wasteful manner. Their combination formation attacks gave them both terrifying offense as well as astonishing defense. Linley’s attack hadn’t managed to wound them at all. “Boss, are you okay?” Bebe said in shock and fright. Those beady eyes of him stared at Linley with concern. Bebe was in much better shape than Linley. The primary target of those six Special Executors had been Linley. In addition, Bebe’s defense was even more monstrous than Linley’s. Once again, only a hint of blood could be seen on Bebe’s fur. “Fi, fine.” Linley wiped the blood from his mouth. “That was the first attack.” One of the violet-robed Special Executors standing on a distant rooftop said calmly, “Your defense isn’t bad. Let’s see how many of our formation attacks you can take.” “Waiters, let’s not waste time.” One of the other Special Executors also standing on a rooftop said coldly. “Move.” The Special Executor shouted in a loud voice. Many of the buildings nearby had toppled, and the battle aroused the interest of a large number of powerful combatants, who were watching from afar. But seeing such a large scale, intense battle, they didn’t dare draw too near. The aura of that powerful light-style battle-qi alone filled them with dread. “Swish!” The six Special Executors moved at the same time, transforming into six streaks of white light that flew towards Linley. Surrounded on all sides by the walls of light, Linley had nowhere to run. Linley ground his teeth. “Raaaaaargh!” Linley let out an angry howl, then pulled out the adamantine heavy sword from his back, wildly chopping it towards the six Special Executors. “BOOM.” Linley’s adamantine heavy sword collided viciously against a Special Executor, who didn’t even attempt to dodge. That Special Executor suddenly felt a terrifying force passing towards him. “Hrm?” The violet-robed Special Executor was knocked flying backwards by the blow, but under the protection of that light-style battle-qi, he still didn’t suffer any major injuries. Only a heavy sword such as this could allow the astonishing power of a Dragonblood Warrior to be put on full display. “Slash!” The other five swords continued to chop at Linley’s body. Linley used his claws, his tail, and the spikes on his body to wildly attack, and the five Special Executors once more flew backwards. Linley fell to one knee. The majority of the scales on Linley’s body were shattered now, and that wound on his chest had suffered yet another slash. The wound was so deep that Linley’s bones could be seen, and it was rapidly oozing blood. However, the Dragonblood Warrior’s powerful bloodline gave Linley an extremely fast recovery. Linley’s muscles were constantly rippling and stretching out, try to once more mend themselves and stitch themselves back together. This wound, however, was simply too severe. Even Linley’s bloodline only resulted in the wound growing stronger. The loss of a large amount of blood, however, was causing Linley to grow dizzy. “The next one will be the one that kills you.” One of the six Special Executors said arrogantly. Filled with fear, Bebe crouched next to Linley. Both Linley and Bebe felt a sense of despair. “Hmph.” Linley angrily shook his head, forcing himself to try and focus a little. But he had lost too much blood, and even Linley’s vision had grown slightly blurred. But right at this moment, a magical, illusory ray of light shone forth from the Coiling Dragon ring, transforming into an old man with white robes, a white beard, and white hair. “Grandpa Doehring.” Linley was startled. He didn’t understand why Doehring Cowart had appeared all of a sudden. Doehring Cowart looked exactly the way he did when Linley had first encountered him. A little smile on his face, Doehring Cowart gently rubbed Linley on the head. “Linley, in the future, you’ll have to rely on yourself.” Doehring Cowart said, a fond smile on his face. “Grandpa Doehring, what are you…” Linley was stunned. Doehring Cowart’s spirit suddenly rose into the air. Hovering a meter above the ground, he spread his hands wide. A terrifyingly powerful burst of spiritual energy suddenly erupted forth from Doehring Cowart. Right now, Doehring Cowart felt extremely calm and at peace. “In the past, when I lived in the Pouant Empire, my life was a life of training and slaughter. In the Pouant Empire, I was extremely arrogant and a difficult person to get close to. I had no children and no grandchildren. But after having spent five thousand years in the Coiling Dragon ring, my temperament has changed. And then, I met you, Linley.” Hovering in the air, Doehring Cowart was still gazing at Linley. “Grandpa Doehring, what are you going to do?” Linley had an terrible premonition… “I’ve watched you grow up and become mature, one step at a time. In my heart, I felt very proud of your successes. I’ve even come to consider you as my own grandson.” The amount of spiritual energy Doehring Cowart was emitting grew even greater. The amount of spiritual energy was so high that aside from powerful combatants such as Linley and the six Special Executors, even those warriors watching the battle from far away could sense it. All of the six Special Executors were shocked and alarmed. “Linley, don’t be sad. In truth, trapped as I am within this Coiling Dragon ring, I don’t have much of a future. Let this, then, be one final demonstration of my power.” Doehring Cowart’s smile became all the more brilliant. But Linley was now shaking with terror. “What is going on?!” The six Special Executors were beginning to be genuinely frightened. That vortex of spiritual energy was simply too powerful, so powerful that they too were beginning to quake with fear. The power unleashed when a peak-stage Saint-level combatant was igniting the spiritual energy present in his very soul was incomparably more powerful than the power which even a peak-stage Saint-level combatant normally possessed. “WHOOSH!” All of the earth elemental essence around the entire city of Hess suddenly flowed towards Doehring Cowart at high speed. Bound by Doehring Cowart’s terrifyingly powerful spiritual energy, all of the earth elemental essence began to coalesce. No mageforce. This was a spell that relied solely on spiritual energy to control the earth elemental essence! Under normal conditions, this would render the attack power of the earth spell to be very weak. But the spell which Doehring Cowart was now casting was so powerful that one could only shiver in terror. “HEAVENLY METEOR’S DESCENT!” Doehring Cowart’s spirit had begun to grow blurry, but his voice remained as cold and calm as that of a celestial spirit. Six enormous earth-colored meteors fell forth from the sky, smashing towards those six Special Executors. “SWOOSH!” Those six gigantic meteors formed purely from earth elemental essence, each the size of a house, smashed towards the six men at such a high speed that it seemed as though they were tearing through space itself. Those six Special Executors fled in terror, but those six meteors only chased after them. “Linley.” Doehring Cowart looked at Linley. “Goodbye.” Linley looked up at Grandpa Doehring, with his white beard, white hair, and white robe. “Remember this. Live well.” Doehring Cowart’s face suddenly blossomed into his trademark smile…and then his now translucent spirit disappeared, like smoke being blown away by the wind. Linley opened his mouth, but felt as though no words could come from his throat. His tears began to uncontrollably roll down his face. “Ah…Ah!!!” As though he were mute and incapable of speech, Linley howled to the heavens, and his tears came pouring down.