Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Of course, that didn’t mean that Lin Li had an easy time dealing with High Priest Poer who was at the demigod realm. Unless Lin Li’s trump card could allow him to summon a true deity, it would probably be a waste to use any other trump cards. They were all useless against the powerful enemies of the demigod realm, but that didn’t mean that they would be just as useless against other Sanctuary powerhouses. Hence, Edmund dared not underestimate the trump card that Lin Li had.
Seeing that Edmund had said so too, Bradlor had no choice but to believe him despite being unable to figure it out. After all, with Edmund’s status, there was no need to deceive him at all, and it wouldn’t do any good to the Illuminati, either. On the contrary, if he really schemed against the Gilded Kingdom, Edmund wouldn’t have to say anything to Bradlor, as he could just have him go and provoke Felic.
Thinking about the conflict that happened in the council hall during the day, as well as Edmund’s reminder, Bradlor couldn’t help but feel a little scared. If Lin Li was really as terrifying as Edmund made him out to be, and if Edmund couldn’t make it back alive, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“So, what are we going to do next?” asked Bradlor, thankful that things hadn’t escalated beyond control. At the same time, he was also asking Edmund for advice on how he should handle his relationship with the Tower of Dusk in the future.
“With my understanding of Felic, he won’t take what happened today personally, but you have to pay more attention in the future, don’t let those incompetent ones provoke him and his subordinates again. As for the rest, just know that if you can get on good terms with him, it definitely won’t be a bad thing for the Gilded Kingdom. I believe you should know what to do.” Although Edmund rarely interacted with Lin Li, he could tell just from the fact that Lin Li didn’t kick them when they were already down after High Priest Poer seriously injured him and Elder Zumar that Lin Li wasn’t a petty person.
If it had been anyone else, they would have probably caved in to the temptation, taken the opportunity to kill them, and then snatched the treasure away when Edmund and Elder Zumar had been severely injured to the point of almost becoming defenseless. Since the Illuminati wouldn’t have pursued the matter later anyway, Lin Li could have just pushed all the blame to High Priest Poer. Even if the Illuminati had suspected anything, they wouldn’t have been able to make any accusations, and might even have had to be controlled by Lin Li because of the holy artifact.
However, after dealing with High Priest Poer, Lin Li not only did not do anything to Edmund, but also gave them the holy artifact. He even helped them find the corpse of the founding saint, Aquilo. Hence, in Edmund’s opinion, Lin Li was the type who wouldn’t provoke anyone unnecessarily, unless they offended him. As long as they didn’t mess with him for no reason, everything would be fine.
Of course, just because Edmund had such an understanding, it didn’t mean that Bradlor would think the same. After all, Bradlor was clueless about what had happened in the underground world, so after finding out that Lin Li was a powerhouse whom even Edmund didn’t dare to underestimate, he immediately thought about ways to patch things up with Lin Li.
However, Edmund was obviously not intending to talk about Lin Li anymore. Hence, Bradlor naturally could not ask about it any further. Instead, he changed the topic of conversation to the matter regarding Cursed Island, and asked, “Saint Edmund, everything went well during the trip to Cursed Island this time, right?”
Despite being the king, even Bradlor didn’t have the right or authority to interfere with the affairs of the Illuminati, let alone find out their secrets. Hence, he merely asked that question politely.
Hearing that Bradlor had asked about Cursed Island, Edmund couldn’t help but look at him. Seeing that there wasn’t a change in his expression, he knew that High Priest Poer should have been presumptuous, and had done those things out of his own accord. However, Edmund did not say anything about High Priest Poer. After all, High Priest Poer was a member of the Gilded Kingdom, and if the saint talked about it now, it wouldn’t do any good for the relationship between the Illuminati and the Gilded Kingdom.
Edmund looked away, and emotionally said, “It’s all thanks to President Felic this time. Otherwise, the matter wouldn’t have been completed so smoothly.”
In fact, if it weren’t because Lin Li had dealt with High Priest Poer, they probably wouldn’t have come back alive, let alone resurrect Aquilo.
Edmund’s words did not make Bradlor think too much about it. Even though Edmund admired Lin Li’s strength and power, Bradlor didn’t think that the Illuminati’s mission was almost entirely accomplished by Lin Li. Bradlor could tell from Edmund’s words that the Illuminati should have completed their mission on Cursed Island. Otherwise, Edmund wouldn’t have said that it was smooth and successful.
“Does that mean that High Priest Poer didn’t come back with you guys?” Bradlor eventually asked about High Priest Poer. After all, High Priest Poer was considered one of Bradlor’s underlings and a Sanctuary powerhouse who was rare in the Gilded Kingdom. Lin Li and Edmund had both returned, but Poer hadn’t returned yet. Hence, no one would ignore that problem.
“He stayed there,” Edmund answered indifferently.
That was a vague statement that could be interpreted in many ways. It could mean that Poer had died there, got trapped, or decided to stay there out of his own accord. However, Bradlor did not take things seriously. No matter what, High Priest Poer was also a Sanctuary powerhouse, so he merely thought that Poer had stayed there to handle some matters.
Hence, when Bradlor saw that Edmund seemed to be unwilling to continue talking about the matter, he stopped probing about Poer. Instead, he said, “Saint Edmund, since everything has been going well with the Illuminati, the ancestors of the Gilded Kingdom—”
However, before Bradlor could finish his sentence, Edmund stopped him with a serious expression, and said, “Bradlor, it’s not the time to talk about that matter now, you just need to remember that the Illuminati will keep their word and stick to the original agreement. Okay, I still need to report the matter of Cursed Island to the lord. I shall not impose on you any further.”
Bradlor also suddenly came back to his senses. Seeing that Edmund was about to take his leave, he hurriedly got up to walk him out personally. Putting aside their identities as the king and a saint, Bradlor was Edmund’s junior in terms of seniority. After sending Edmund away, he returned to the palace alone while continuing to think about how to patch things up with Lin Li.
With Edmund’s reminder, Bradlor temporarily dropped the idea of regaining his pride. After all, the Gilded Kingdom was the root cause of the matter. Despite being reluctant and indignant, Bradlor still had to consider the interests of the kingdom. Besides, he didn’t really want to go to war, either.
As the protagonist of this incident, Lin Li returned to the embassy of the Tower of Dusk. After patronizing the people of the Breezy Plains, he sent them all away. What happened in the royal palace today did not cause him to feel any emotion. A war was terrifying and destructive, but if the battlefield wasn’t in the Breezy Plains, what would the impact be on the Breezy Plains?
The Gilded Kingdom was far away, and even if they had the most powerful fleet in Anril, they had to have a way to get on the mainland of the Breezy Plains if they wanted to invade it. Lin Li was confident that with his own strength and the powerful Sky Castle, he would be able to block the Gilded Kingdom’s army at sea easily.
Hence, after returning to the embassy, Lin Li did not think much about the matter in the palace, and instead returned to his room where he continued to study the mysterious Divine-Smith-level mageweath.
Yesterday, Lin Li spent almost a day and a night on research, but his progress in studying the Divine-Smith-level mageweath was negligible. He probably hadn’t even figured out a single tinge of the mystery within. However, Lin Li had an obvious feeling that he had gained a lot out of this process.
The Divine-Smith-level mageweath could be considered a Book of Eternity of the field of inscription. It could even bring about benefits that were beyond the field of inscription for Lin Li. Be it magic spells, mageweaths, potions, or even inscriptions, the World Laws were a crucial factor after one reached a certain level.
Although Lin Li was already a Guru of Inscription, those at the Guru-level and Master-level still belonged to the world of humans and mortals. How could the power of mortals be compared to the power of the gods? Not to mention the power of the gods, even if it was only a wisp of divine power, it was not something that ordinary people could contend with.
It was just like how High Priest Poer had a wisp of divine power after he became the slave of the ancient God of Light and reached the demigod realm. With that power, High Priest Poer forced Lin Li into the state of being almost defenseless. In fact, not to mention Lin Li, even if Edmund and Zumar had not been injured, they would probably only have been suppressed by High Priest Poer’s overwhelming power.
If it was a real god, Lin Li and the rest would not have to resist at all, as the other party could kill them easily with the lift of a finger. That was the difference between gods and mortals. The power of gods was already beyond the constraints of this world, which was something that mortals could not compare to at all.
As long as mortals were still mortals, they would definitely be bound by the power of the world, and all the power they used would have to be within this world. It was just like the comparison between a pond and the sea. A pond might be deep, but there were still boundaries, and no matter how strong the wind might be, there was no way it could lead to huge waves. Ascending to godhood was akin to turning the pond into an ocean that could produce terrifying storms and massive waves. The boundless power was not restrained at all.
The Divine-Smith-level mageweath controlled the World Laws, and if Lin Li could figure it out, he might be able to ascend to godhood right away. However, since ancient times, there had only been a few who could do that, and the Immortal King was the only Divine Smith in history.
Of course, in Lin Li’s opinion, Geresco the God of Mages was probably also qualified to be called a Divine Smith. For example, the Sky Castle and its facilities were not something that ordinary Guru-level people could create. However, Lin Li hadn’t exactly discovered any Divine-Smith-level works of Geresco yet.
That showed that it was not an easy task to become a Divine Smith. Fortunately, Lin Li had this Divine-Smith-level mageweath to study, which seemed to be giving him a direction and guiding him straight to the threshold of Divine Smith. Therefore, the Divine-Smith-level mageweath was of absolute importance to Lin Li as it was better than searching blindly, even though he did not pin all his hopes on it.
As for becoming a Divine Smith or ascending to godhood, there was not much difference between them. When one reached the Divine-realm, everything would boil down to laws. The magic spells cast by mages were laws, and so were the mageweaths of inscribers and potions made by pharmacists.
Hence, when it came to combat power, the power used would not be inferior to mages’ after one reached a certain realm. In terms of creativity, Divine Smiths were much stronger than ordinary gods. After all, they could create miracles anytime and anywhere.
Of course, Lin Li would probably take a long time if he wanted to rely on this Divine-Smith-level mageweath to reach the Divine Smiths’ realm. After all, this Divine-Smith-level mageweath was still too profound for him, and it was something that he had to use endless energy to study.
However, Lin Li had his advantages too as he had a set of skills that were beyond just mageweaths and inscriptions. He was also good at forging, pharmaceutics, and other fields of knowledge. Although they seemed to be separate entities at this stage, they were actually all related to the nature of Laws. It would be impossible not to involve the laws.
Besides, when studying the Divine-Smith-level mageweath, Lin Li did not forget about what he had learned in the underground world, and that was the power left in the debris of the stars by the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness. The power of the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness was used by the gods to stabilize their Divine Kingdom. A Domain World with the incarnations of the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness could almost be considered a real world. In fact, it was even comparable to Anril.
Lin Li did not have the luxury of turning his Domain World into the legendary Divine Kingdom all of a sudden. However, once he found out the secret of the power of the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness, and added the power to his Domain World, no one else in the Sanctuary-realm would compare to him.
The Domain World was the foundation of a Sanctuary powerhouse, and its strength and stability would directly affect the strength of the Sanctuary powerhouse. If Lin Li had such a powerful Domain World, and condensed it into a World Sword, he would probably have terrifying strength that would allow him to severely wound the demigod-level High Priest Poer with the World Sword if he had to face him again.
