He could clearly sense that Linley was walking in an extremely rhythmic manner, seeming to carry with each step a certain vibration. In truth, what had happened was that Linley had immersed himself in his silent training for so long that even when he walked, his steps would also embody the throbbing pulse of the earth.
“He truly is talented.” Cesar praised in his heart.
After walking for a short distance, Cesar saw Barker and his siblings. The five of them were in an area filled with countless giant boulders the size of houses, which they were using as part of their weight training. The entire area was suffused with an earth-colored layer of light.
“Haaaargh!”
The muscles on the bodies of the Barker brothers were rippling and gleaming, with the veins sticking out like snakes on their bodies, making them look extremely powerful and mighty.
“Lord Cesar.” Upon seeing Cesar, Barker and his siblings immediately stopped their training.
“You five fellows really do train hard, eh?” Cesar quirked his lips in a grin. “What sort of effectiveness are you seeing from your training?”
The fourth of the five siblings, Boone [Bu’en], said excitedly, “In the past, when we were training, we didn’t sense much improvement. But now that we are training in this Supergravity Field, both our muscles as well as our internal organs are strengthening and improving.”
The area under the effects of a Supergravity Field would see the local gravity increase dramatically.
Higher gravity could benefit the muscles, the organs, and the entire body.
“Excellent. I made a long round trip, and brought back with me the secret manual I had copied by hand all those years ago.” With a flip of his hand, a rather thin book appeared in front of Cesar.
Barker and his brothers stared at this manual, their eyes shining.
“This is the Secret Undying Manual?” The fifth brother, Gates, stared at it with wide, hungry eyes.
“Take it.” Cesar began to laugh.
The fifth brother, Gates, snatched it over, his hand moving like a blur. He immediately opened the manual and began to read, with the other four squeezed together like five giant bears, craning their necks over and staring at it with eyes as big and wide as ox-eyes.
This spectacle was actually quite funny.
“Haha.” Cesar began to laugh, while a hint of a smile was on Linley’s lips as well. Cesar looked at Linley. In a low voice, he warned, “Linley, I can tell that these five brothers are just like their ancestors. They are rather boorish and unrefined. If they are to travel alone, most likely they will be easily duped and cheated by others. I hope you can lead and guide them.”
“Lord Cesar, don’t worry.” Linley assented.
During this period of association with the five Barker brothers, Linley had discovered that these five men clearly differentiated between enmity and benevolence. They were very straightforward and didn’t play any mind games. They’d curse out whoever they wanted to curse and wouldn’t hide any of their thoughts.
Linley actually rather liked this sort of temperament. It was genuine!
“The five of them, upon training in accordance with the Secret Undying Manual, will improve at a very rapid speed. It won’t be difficult at all for them to reach the ninth rank within a few years.” Cesar sighed to himself.
Turning his head, he glanced at Linley. “This Linley is most likely worthy of my trust.”
As far as Cesar was concerned, Linley couldn’t even come close to comparing with the five Barker brothers in terms of importance. After all, these five were the descendants of the closest friend Cesar had ever made. As for Linley, he was nothing more than a sculptor whom Cesar, a statue aficionado, rather liked.
Towards Linley, he only felt appreciation.
But towards the five brothers, he felt the sort of doting love one might feel towards one’s grandchildren.
Soon after, Cesar left again. After about half a year had passed, the manor was completed, and Linley and his team took up residence within, beginning a long period of quiet training.
Aside from Cesar, perhaps the only person who knew that Linley was living there was Yale.
Yale had long ago had set up a system of sending someone each month to provide news regarding the Radiant Church, basic news regarding the Yulan continent as a whole, as well as information about Wharton.
Although they were living in this village, Linley thus was still kept very well informed about the affairs of the Yulan continent.
Within a forest on the west side of Cloudpeaks Village, Linley was training by himself.
Three years.
They had spent three full years within the quiet Cloudpeaks Village. During these three years, the Radiant Church’s forces had been searching fruitlessly for them. As for Linley, he had totally immersed himself within his training, and had advanced quite rapidly as well.
The wind rose, blowing the dead leaves to the ground.
Linley raised his head to look at the sky. Very high up above him, a Bluewind Hawk was flying with wings spread. A hint of a smile appeared on Linley’s lips, and he suddenly thrust his adamantine heavy sword into the air.
“Boom!”
Originating from Linley’s adamantine heavy sword, a series of faint cracks in space itself could be seen as a vibrational wave burst forward up into the sky at an incredibly high speed.
In the blink of an eye, the vibrating waves had traversed nearly a thousand meters.
“Boom!”
The body of the Bluewind Hawk, a magical beast of the fifth rank, shuddered, then begin to collapse from the skies.
“I’ve finally reached the level of the ‘Hundred Layered Waves’.” Linley’s eyes were filled with a hint of confidence. “If today, that Stehle were to be struck by me again, he most likely wouldn’t get off with just a light wound this time.”
Profound Truths of the Earth – Triple Layered Waves!
Profound Truths of the Earth – Ten Layered Waves!
Profound Truths of the Earth – Hundred Layered Waves!
After spending three years, Linley had already reached an extremely high level of understanding with regards to the Profound Truths of the Earth, and his attack power was now very terrifying as well.
Within a thousand meters distance, he could kill a magical beast of the fifth rank
Most likely, even an early-stage Saint-level combatant would be hard pressed to accomplish such a task. After all, battle-qi, when being transmitted through the air, would slowly be weakened by air resistance. When the distance reached a certain length, the power of the attack would be almost negligibly weak as well.
Compared to battle-qi, these ‘vibrational waves’ would still be weakened when passing through the air, but much, much less than battle-qi would be.
When using the Triple Layered Waves technique in the past, Linley could only kill a magical beast of the fifth rank at a distance of roughly ten meters. Any farther away, and the waves wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill fifth ranked magical beasts.
But upon reaching the Ten Layered Waves stage of the technique, Linley could kill a fifth ranked magical beast within a hundred meters.
But the Hundred Layered Waves was even more powerful. Even three thousand meters wouldn’t prove a problem, much less a thousand.
This was the true ace in Linley’s sleeve. Unless he was in a dangerous situation, Linley wouldn’t willingly use this technique.
“But how to break past the barrier for the Profound Truths of the Wind?” With a flip of his hand, Linley returned the adamantine heavy sword to its sheath, then drew out the Bloodviolet Godsword.
Over the past three years, Linley had gained some insight regarding the fourth level of using the Bloodviolet, the Profound Truths of the Wind. But his insights were only limited to the simplest level; the ‘Rippling Wind’ technique.
“This shouldn’t be the case. Wind-style magic isn’t just fast and flexible. It should also have extremely powerful one-on-one attack abilities. How, then, can one execute the ‘Dimensional Edge’ through sword attacks?”
Linley had a certain feeling that the effects of the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell absolutely could be displayed through the Bloodviolet Godsword. But it was as though the road to that level was covered by a dense fog, leading Linley to have no idea where he should try to make the breakthrough.
“Big brother Linley, big brother Linley!” Rebecca’s clear voice rang out from outside the forest.
Linley grabbed the Bluewind Hawk by the neck and headed out of the forest with the hawk in his hands. This hawk would serve as part of dinner.
“Big brother Linley, your letter just came.” Rebecca smiled radiantly at Linley.
“Oh?”
Each month, a new letter would come. Linley tossed the Bluewind Hawk over. “Rebecca, our dinner tonight will be this Bluewind Hawk.” As he spoke, Linley accepted the letter and tore it open.