Chapter 24 – Insight

Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 24, Insight In the dark night sky, the Violet Moon’s hazy light was like a light layer of gauze covering the earth. In the air above the volcano range, Elquin and Learmonth were wielding their weapons, facing each other. Below them, Linley’s group and the little golden kitten raised their heads to watch. “Linley, who will win?” Delia said softly. Linley’s head was raised as he looked at the two in mid-air. “Hard to say. I keep on having this feeling that Elquin seems to be slightly stronger. However, no matter what, Learmonth’s attack is truly astonishing.” Linley wasn’t blinking at all, for fear of missing any of it. The little golden kitten, Phusro, just hovered there in mid-air, gently swaying its tail while raising its little head to watch. “I, Learmonth, in countless years, have challenged a total of eighteen Six Star Fiends. In each battle, I was victorious! This will be my first time challenging a Seven Star Fiend.” Learmonth hovered in mid-air and said in a clear voice. Normally, Learmonth was very emotionless and seemed to care about nothing. But at this moment, Learmonth’s eyes flashed like lightning, and he was filled with battle intent. Elquin’s battle intent had been aroused as well. “Hmph. Those that you defeated were nothing more than Six Star Fiends. Today…I will let you know the difference between a Six Star Fiend and a Seven Star Fiend!” Elquin’s long black robes fluttered, and the long black whip in his hand gently swayed like an agile viper. Seven star missions were the hardest missions available in the Fiend Castle! One star to two star, two star to three star, all the way up to the fifth star and sixth star, the increase in the difficulty of a mission wouldn’t be too extravagant. However, leaping to seven star missions was extremely difficult. This is why despite so many years having passed in the Infernal Realm, the number of Seven Star Fiends was still incomparably low. Learmonth, despite having defeated eighteen Six Star Fiends, wasn’t certain in being able to defeat Elquin. But it was precisely because he wasn’t certain that this was all the more challenging and arousing! “Haha…” Learmonth began to laugh loudly. “Crackle…” A terrifying gray sword energy emanated out from Learmonth’s body. In the blink of an eye, an enormous illusory sword that was over a hundred meters high appeared, while Learmonth himself was at the nucleus of this enormous illusory sword. The fierce sword energy had already caused space to tremble. “You truly have trained the Edicts of Destruction to an extremely high level.” Elquin let out a calm sigh in praise, but his face didn’t have a hint of concern on it at all. “Rumble…” The area within a hundred meters of Elquin instantly turned pitch-black, without a hint of light. At the same time, the entire area began to twist and distort. Even the light of the moon was completely sucked in within this area of a hundred meters of darkness around Elquin. Only Elquin himself was visible. “Hmph. Feel free to use whatever techniques you feel proud of. Otherwise, you won’t have the chance to do so after you die.” Elquin said calmly. Learmonth let out a chuckle. “Then…first receive my thirteen swords!” Instantly, he unleashed the sword… The sword shadow flickered, and suddenly, an awe-inspiring thirteen black sword shadows appeared, striking out through the air like thirteen viperous dragons. Multiple scars in space appeared as the thirteen sword shadows slashed out in different arcs, but came striking down at Elquin at the same time. The thirteen sword shadows were incredibly fierce, like giant man-eating beasts, trying to chop Elquin into mincemeat. “Hmph.” Elquin, faced with these thirteen extremely fierce sword shadows, only let out a calm snort while at the same time lightly waving the long black whip in his hands. This seeming thin long black whip began to dance, and it seemed as though it had transformed into an enormous black python. In addition, this ‘large black python’ carried with it a fog that seemed like strips of black silk. “Crackle….” The black whip, transformed into the ‘large black python’, coiled about like an enormous buckler, and the ‘large black python’ which carried within it that black silken fog coiled firmly against the thirteen extremely fierce and aggressive sword shadows. “Bang!” “Bang!” Many of the strips of black silk instantly collapsed upon touching the sword energy, but upon dissipating into black fog, they once more reformed. There were simply too many strips of black silk, and as soon as they shattered they reformed. In addition, that ‘large black python’ very firmly blocked the attacks of those thirteen sword shadows. Soon, the thirteen sword shadows dissipated. Using soft to overcome hard. Despite being incredibly sharp, those thirteen sword shadows were still ground down. “Is that the best you can do?” Elquin said calmly. “Excellent!” Learmonth’s eyes lit up. “This technique of yours contains at least three different profound mysteries of the Laws of Darkness! Elquin, of the six profound mysteries of the Laws of Darkness, how many have you fused?” Learmonth was an expert as well. With but a single glance, he was able to tell how many profound mysteries were contained within the enemy’s defense. Elquin chuckled. “Why should I tell you? That was just the opener. That small attack of yours isn’t qualified for me to use my ultimate technique!” Linley, quietly watching the battle, was trying to analyze the profound mysteries contained within Elquin’s technique. “Hm? Learmonth said that this technique contained three profound mysteries. Aside from the ‘Essence of Darkness’ and ‘Evil’, these two profound mysteries, what else is there?” From the surface, Linley was only able to recognize these two profound mysteries. Linley suddenly laughed. “Right. Learmonth’s attack contained a soul attack component. Since that was blocked, the third must be a spirit-type profound mystery.” A simple technique contained three different types of profound mysteries. This showed that Elquin had at least fused three of them. “I’ve only fused two. It seems that I still have a long way to go.” Linley said to himself. “Huh?” Linley’s eyes suddenly lit up. In mid-air, Learmonth began to bellow in excitement. “Haha….” While laughing loudly, Learmonth began to move at high speed, transforming into countless shadows which surrounded Elquin, each one of which was carrying a sword shadow. “Competing in speed? How laughable.” How could Elquin be afraid of this? Elquin’s body flickered, then instantly transformed into hundreds of illusory shadows as well. It wasthe Shadowshape Doppelganger technique. Elquin was capable of shifting to any one of those hundreds of shadows, making him completely unpredictable. Elquin’s loud laughter rang out. “Haha, there’s no way you can touch me!” “I’m not competing with you in speed!” Learmonth’s voice rang out, while at the same time, those moving shadows completely dissipated. Learmonth himself flew back at high speed, but then… Countless sword shadows split the air apart. “Crackle…” Just as Learmonth began to move at high speed, he had already unleashed hundreds of sword shadow attacks, each one slightly different, whether in time of attack or location. Learmonth executed them all perfectly, and as he launched his final sword shadow… Instantly, the countless sword shadows in mid-air formed into a single shape…a blossoming lotus flower. In this moment, as those countless sword shadows attacked, the ‘blossoming lotus flower’ came into full form, and at the center of it was Elquin. “Hrm?” Elquin’s face instantly changed. This sword lotus had already completely sealed off the area around him, giving him no place to flee. His only choice was to take it head on. “This Learmonth truly is powerful.” Elquin said to himself. And then, with a flip of his right palm, Elquin’s blackened yellow right palm instantly became as scarlet-red as blood while increasing to the size of a fan. Elquin let out a cold snort. His right palm suddenly slammed upwards! From above, many sword shadows were pressing down at him. “BANG!” The sword shadows were completely dispersed, but blood was flowing on Elquin’s scarlet-red hand. He had been wounded! “My glove was destroyed. Otherwise, how could I have been injured?” Elquin was filled with anger. In this attempt to seize the treasure of the Boyd clan, Elquin had incurred a major loss. And now, he had been challenged by Learmonth, and even wounded. One detriment after another…Elquin was truly enraged now, and he no longer used one technique to counter another. He actively attacked! The sword shadows from above crumbled away, and Elquin himself charged straight through that hole, like a giant eagle in flight, charging straight towards the distant Learmonth while shouting explosively through divine sense, “Learmonth, you receive one of my attacks as well!” The long black whip in Elquin’s hands twisted about, instantly turning scarlet red and transforming into an enormous blood-red serpent as it coiled towards Learmonth. This enormous serpent even opened its mouth wide, revealing its black fangs. The enormous red serpent’s sudden attack caused space itself to tremble. “Rumble…” “Excellent!” Learmonth’s eyes were flashing like lightning, and the longsword in his hand suddenly stabbed outwards. This sword attack appeared ordinary, but in the moment when it stabbed outwards, a black ‘hole’ in space suddenly appeared. The longsword seemed to twist as it stabbed through that black hole, and wherever the longsword passed by, space itself split open. “Starpoint…EXPLOSIONS!” Learmonth’s most powerful attack. The ultimate attack he had used to kill that green-robed elder at the castle of sand. Elquin, seeing the power of this attack, couldn’t help but feel surprised. And then, Elquin gritted his teeth, his face savage. At the same time, the long whip in his hand which had transformed into a blood red serpent shuddered, then transformed into a nine-headed serpent, each one of which had its fanged maw open. Learmonth’s seemingly unblockable sword pierced straight over… “Crunch!” It pierced straight through the throats of one of the serpentine heads. “Clang!” The sword pierced through to the long whip contained within the nine blood red serpentine heads. Instantly, the entire blood red nine-headed serpent trembled, then with a ‘BOOM’ exploded, transforming back into that long black whip. At the same time, the serpent heads that had been blocked off by that explosion continued to charge towards Learmonth. One blood red serpent’s head after another charged towards him at high speed, savagely biting towards Learmonth. A sword shadow flashed! Eight explosion sounds occurred simultaneously, while Learmonth himself was sent flying backwards by the force of the explosions, landing onto the ground of the volcano range below. Immediately, Learmonth rose to his feet. Right now, Learmonth’s face was ashen, and there was a hint of blood at the corner of his lips. “Formidable, formidable. You’ve fused four types of profound mysteries.” Learmonth’s body had bloodstains on it as well, and he carefully glanced at Elquin. “Since you were able to withstand this attack of mine, I admit defeat.” Elquin’s face was paler than it had been in the past as well, but he hadn’t been as heavily injured as Learmonth had. The onlookers, being Linley’s group and the little golden kitten, were all rather surprised. “Learmonth lost?” Bebe murmured. “He isn’t dead yet, but he admitted defeat?” Linley continued to carefully watch the two combatants. Elquin looked at Learmonth in surprise. “You…you actually managed to fuse Destruction divine power and fire divine power together? You…you have a mutated soul?” When receiving this attack just now, Elquin just barely managed to detect the true energy source contained within this ‘Starpoint Explosions’ technique. It wasn’t Destruction divine power. It was a fusion of Destruction divine power and fire divine power. “Right. Unfortunately, despite that being the case, I still am not your match.” Learmonth shook his head. “A mutated soul. How truly rare.” Elquin sighed in amazement. “Generally speaking, only such a person is capable of fusing different types of divine power. Previously, I’ve only heard that when fusing different types of divine power, one’s strength would increase explosively. Today, I see that is indeed the case.” Elquin glanced at Learmonth. “To be honest, your power should already be at the Seven Star Fiend level. However, you are still somewhat weaker than me. Then…die!” As he spoke, Elquin’s body suddenly transformed into an illusion, transforming into hundreds of illusory shadows which all attacked towards the heavily wounded Learmonth. Laws of Darkness – Shadowshape Doppelganger technique! Linley, watching this, was stunned. “Fusing divine power? Indeed. Right, Olivier had previously been able to simultaneously utilize darkness divine power and light divine power. Only, Olivier’s degree of fusion was not as great as Learmonth’s.” Learmonth’s attack was hard to judge just from looking at it. When the person who received the attack, Elquin, had only just barely been able to detect it. Thus, one could tell how deeply Learmonth had fused those two surges of divine power. “When two different types of divine power are fused, the power of the attack is actually increased so much? How does one fuse divine power? From what Elquin said, it seems as though one’s soul has to mutate in order for divine power to be fused. Otherwise, it is impossible.” Linley’s thoughts suddenly came to a halt. He looked towards the air. “Is Learmonth going to die, just like that?”