Chapter 23 – Fast, Slow?

Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 23: Fast, Slow? The Queen Mother, Lachapelle, possessed tremendous power. In the air above the boundless desert of the seventh floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, the wind blew the sand as Desri, Linley, Fain, and the other human experts, along with Bebe and the other magical beast experts, stood there in mid-air. All of them were seriously pondering their next steps. “If we don’t have any hope at all, I recommend…giving up.” Desri forced the words out. The other experts all looked towards Desri. “Give up, just like that?” Fain’s eyes had a hint of unwillingness. They had waited a thousand years for this opportunity, and they had even passed the sixth floor. He was indeed rather unwilling to give up this opportunity now. “We have no hope at all.” Desri shook his head. “A single tendril of Queen Mother Lachapelle’s is already so durable, and she has thousands on thousands of them. More importantly, even if you break those tendrils, they’ll naturally regrow.” Desri looked around him. “Everyone, you tell me, must we insist on going to our deaths?” Linley and Bebe exchanged glances. “Boss, let’s give up.” Bebe said mentally to Linley. “There’s no rush for us. At worst, in another hundred years, when the two of us have become stronger, I’ll ask my Grandpa Beirut to just open another tunnel to the Necropolis of the Gods, just for us.” Bebe felt it was hopeless as well. Linley couldn’t help but think back to the terrifying scene of those countless, densely packed tendrils surrounding him, especially the feeling of him being surrounded by them. That sort of dangerous feeling truly was heart-shaking. But just at that moment, those three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions glanced at each other, and one of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions said solemnly, “No, we aren’t entirely hopeless. We still have a bit of hope.” “Oh?” The levitating experts all stared in surprise towards those Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions. “We still have hope? You say we still have hope? What hope?” Fain immediately asked. That Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion nodded. “We three brothers have an ultimate attack. Through our ‘Six Eyes’, we can emit six rays of light to cover our opponent. It will paralyze the opponent and completely prevent them from moving.” “Paralyze them? Prevent them from moving?” Linley was greatly shocked. This ultimate attack was simply too monstrous. Didn’t it essentially mean that it would force the opponent to just stand there and be beaten? Everyone present, even the perpetually silent Olivier and the Blackscale Scorpion, had their eyes filled with amazement. “Right. I remember, now.” Rosarie said with surprised joy. “I remember that when we first arrived at the seventh floor and Bebe and the others entered the sands and seized that ‘child’ monster, it was one of you three brothers who killed the monster. When you killed it, your six eyes emanated a ray of black light that surrounded the monster, paralyzing it and forcing it to allow you to kill it.” Linley and the others remembered that as well. “If that’s the case, then we’ll win for sure.” The Blackscale Scorpion rumbled. “Let that Queen Mother, Lachapalle, be paralyzed, and then destroy her soul. Once her soul is destroyed, the Queen Mother will definitely die.” “It isn’t as easy as that.” The leader of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions shook his head. “Our technique isn’t undefeatable. The way you are interpreting it, we would be able to immediately freeze any opponent we encounter and then kill them. Wouldn’t that make us invincible? This technique depends on the power of the opponent.” Linley and the others nodded. Right. If the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions used this technique against a Deity, most likely that Deity would just kill them with a flip of the hand. “This technique of ours is naturally highly effective against that ‘child’ monster, of course.” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said seriously. “But the power of the Queen Mother, Lachapalle, is hundreds of times stronger than her children. When she lets loose, her power is astonishingly great. To paralyze her will be very hard.” The other two Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions nodded as well. Linley and the others all understood this. It was like a giant metal cage. It could be used to imprison a horse or a cow, but if you used the same metal cage, could you possibly use it to trap an enormous dragon that was thousands of times stronger than the horse or the cow? “However, although the Queen Mother Lachapalle is strong, she isn’t at the Deity-level. If we three brothers join forces and use this technique together, most likely…we would be able to paralyze Queen Mother Lachapalle for around a second.” The leader of the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions said. Linley and the others felt joy in their hearts. A second? Although it seemed like a short period of time, to experts such as Linley, a second was enough to allow one to exchange tens or hundreds of blows. “But of course, that’s just an estimate. After all, without having actually fought her, we don’t know how long we can paralyze her for either.” The Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion said. Everyone understood, but they also knew…that these three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lion, working together, would definitely be able to cause the Queen Mother to be paralyzed for a moment. “Everyone, who amongst us feels confident in being able to kill the Queen Mother in an instant?” Desri immediately looked at the others. The three Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions would be able to let them one of the experts have a single instant of an opportunity. Now, the question was who had the best chance of success. “Sadly, we don’t have a wind-style Grand Magus Saint.” Rosarie shook her head and sighed. In terms of the most powerful single-target attack, the title had to go to wind-style Grand Magus Saints. Once the ‘Dimensional Edge’ came out, even space itself would be cut through. It would have definitely been capable of cutting the Queen Mother into two parts. All the experts present were silent. “Linley, how about you?” Fain looked at Linley. Linley maintained his silence. The Queen Mother, Lachapalle, was surrounded by a dense cluster of tendrils. How long the Six-Eyed Golden Ni-Lions would be able to paralyze her for was unknown. If, as soon as he drew near the Queen Mother’s body, she escaped from the ‘paralysis’, then he would definitely be surrounded by countless tendrils again. He wouldn’t even have a chance to run. After all, even the adamantine heavy sword and Bloodviolet combined could only break through roughly a hundred tendrils each time. “Boss.” Bebe shook his head towards Linley. The chance of success was too low. “Whoever kills the Queen Mother shall be the one to take possession of the divine artifact of the seventh floor, if there is one. I think no one here will object.” Desri looked at everyone. Everyone nodded. “We still have two years before the ten year time limit.” Linley said solemnly. “There’s no need for us to rush. Let’s spend some time to think about it.” All the experts nodded. Unless they had at least some degree of confidence, they wouldn’t choose to throw their lives away. ….. The boundless desert. Linley hovered there in mid-air, his eyes shut as he attuned himself to the blowing of the wind. With regards to the Elemental Laws of the Wind, Linley had already had gained some new insights into both the ‘Fast’ aspect and the ‘Slow’ aspect. At this moment, he was attuning to himself to the Elemental Laws, and so he naturally was attuned to these two aspects as well. His mind became one with the wind elemental essences. “Hrm?” Linley’s consciousness suddenly had an image appear within it. When the Queen Mother, Lachapalle, had attacked the first time, those tens of thousands of tendrils had suddenly shot out at high speed. At that time, Linley and the other experts had all sensed that the surrounding space had suddenly frozen, and felt as though they were wallowing in cement or through a pool. “At that time, the Queen Mother’s tendrils were moving in accordance to a strange, profound mystery. It somehow achieved the effect of causing space to freeze.” Linley’s mind suddenly had a thought. Spatial freezing was in truth, a fairly high level interpretation of the ‘Slow’ aspect. Linley still had some distance to go from his current level of ‘slowing’ space to truly ‘freezing’ space. “The Queen Mother’s tendrils were all extremely fast. Even Rutherford wasn’t able to flee.” Linley was puzzled. “But when those tendrils shot out, they were so fast that space itself became blurred. It should be the ‘spatial folding’ interpretation of the ‘Fast’ aspect. But why was it that all of those tendrils combined were able to create the effect of ‘spatial freezing’?” Linley was puzzled. At the same time, Linley unconsciously began to replay the sight of those countless tendrils shooting out, carefully searching for the profound mysteries within. After a long time, Linley, still standing in mid-air, opened his eyes. With a flip of his hand, he retrieved Bloodviolet. His hand thrust it outwards, and instantly… Thousands of Bloodviolets appeared in front of Linley, and the sword blurs caused space itself to begin to blur. This attack was the combination of Linley’s understanding of ‘Spatial Folding’ and ‘Rippling Wind’ attacks, with the ‘Rippling Wind’ capable of producing ten million sword attacks. “Not right.” Linley frowned. “If I want every single sword attack to be like those tendrils, those ten million sword blurs used simultaneously should be able to create the special effect of ‘Spatial Freezing’.” Linley once again struck out with Bloodviolet. Right. Right now, Linley was currently trying to utilize the ‘Rippling Wind’ technique to instantly create ten million swords, imitating the attack of Queen Mother Lachapalle. Again. Again. “Swish.” Bloodviolet once again transformed into ten million swords in the air, and the several meters covered by violet sword flashes suddenly began to congeal. The ten million sword attacks were all like the countless surrounding tendrils, and then, at the same time, they all converged on one point. A sound could be heard… “Bang!” A tear in space appeared. Linley’s eyes lit up. “Right. ‘Spatial Freezing’.” Linley’s face finally revealed a hint of excitement. “Finally. Success.” Fortunately, Bloodviolet was capable of twisting and curving. That was the only reason why he could test the attacks time and time again and completely learn and imitate the attack of Queen Mother Lachapalle. Only, the attack Queen Mother Lachapalle utilized had the thousands of tendrils surround the opponent. But with Linley’s attacks, the ten million swords came together at one point, converging all of their attacks. “In the past, the ‘Rippling Wind’ attack could continuously send out many attacking swords, but once it transformed into ten million swords, because of wind friction, the countless swords couldn’t converge on one spot simultaneously.” Linley had been frustrated over this in the past. When his sword struck out, it naturally had to follow the flows of the wind in order to suddenly produce ten million swords. But to have the ten million swords converge on one spot required the swords to go against the natural force of the wind. As the saying goes, ‘a millimeter of difference, a thousand kilometers of distance’. To go against the natural force of the wind meant that one simply couldn’t instantly create ten million swords. “But by using this unique cadence when creating all those swords, I can do it.” Linley was very surprised. Those ten million swords came out at once, but they didn’t do so wildly and randomly, just following the wind wherever it went. They seemed to travel through a circular arc, creating a strange centrifugal force as all of the swords converged on a single point. “How unique.” Linley couldn’t help but inwardly sigh with amazement. But Linley was also extremely happy. “Although each individual sword of those ten million swords aren’t very powerful, when all those swords combine into one, the power of the attack would be thousands of times greater.” Linley was extremely excited. When ten million swords combined into one, the sharpness and the speed of Bloodviolet would come into full play. Profound Truths of the Wind – Myriad Swords Converge! This was yet another breakthrough in the Profound Truths of the Wind. In terms of attack power, it was even much more powerful than the ‘Tempos of the Wind’. “Only, this is a single target attack, only useful against one target.” Linley knew very well that when those countless swords combined, wherever the sword passed, all obstacles would be chopped to dust. There was no need to wonder about it. The combined strength of those ten million swords combining would definitely cause the power of this attack to reach an awesome height. In addition, this attack also contained the strange ‘Spatial Freezing’ effect. “Why is it that the ‘Fast’ aspect can produce the ‘Spatial Freezing’ effect of the ‘Slow’ aspect?” Although Linley had successfully developed this attack, he still was puzzled. The ‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’ aspects of the Elemental Laws of the Wind were two totally opposite aspects. But it seemed that they were somehow linked together as well. “If I can’t figure it out, then I won’t think about it.” Linley was in an extremely jubilant mood. “The most powerful attack of the Profound Truths of the Wind is totally capable of destroying all obstructions. With this attack, there’s no need to fear the obstruction of any tendrils.” Linley’s heart was filled with confidence. Three days later. Having already engraved this most powerful attack of the Profound Truths of the Wind into his heart, Linley immediately headed off with the other experts towards the Queen Mother, Lachapalle. This time, the others would all support him with their own attacks, while Linley himself would deliver the final attack. After flying for quite a while. “That vast oasis is up ahead. It should be the location of where the many ‘children’ components of Queen Mother Lachapalle have gathered.” Desri pointed off into the distance. The place where the black pyramid had been was now surrounded by an extremely green sea, formed by those many ‘oases’. “Haha…and here I thought all of you were so frightened, you had fled to the sixth floor. I didn’t expect you would dare to return.” The clear voice shook the air above the green sea, and in the air above that green sea, a green, glowing human-formed aberration surrounded by thousands of tendrils was hovering.” It was the Queen Mother, Lachapalle.