Coiling Dragon

Barker felt as though he had been smashed by an enormous meteor as both his body as well as his internal organs began to vibrate with a strength which he had never experienced before. A hundred vibrations occurred in the blink of an eye.

Barker felt his internal organs shudder, and he could already taste blood in his mouth.

He wanted to swallow it, but then another stream of blood was forced into his mouth by his organs. He could no longer repress it, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Big bro!” Barker’s four brothers immediately ran over in astonishment.

“Barker.” Linley was surprised as well.

“I’m fine.” After spitting out that mouthful of blood, Barker actually felt much better. “I’m not injured too badly. My Undying battle-qi should be able to totally cure this sort of minor wound in just three days or so.”

Barker looked at Linley with admiration. “Lord, in terms of understanding and insight, you are on a much higher level than me. Although my body is more powerful than yours, I’m still unable to defeat you.”

The Linley of four years ago definitely wouldn’t have been a match for the current Barker.

But over the course of these four years, Linley had deepened his understanding of the Profound Truths of the Earth. By enhancing his original Triple Layered Waves to the current level of a Hundred Layered Waves, he had increased his attack power by several dozen times.

“If I were to use my adamantine heavy sword, the power of the Hundred Layered Waves would be doubled.” Linley said to himself. The power of the Profound Truths of the Earth, when executed by a heavy sword, was extremely great.

“If I used all of my power with the adamantine heavy sword and executed the Hundred Layered Waves attack, I could most likely heavily injure or even kill an early-stage Saint-level Undying Warrior.” Linley was now very certain.

The defensive abilities of the Undying Warriors were legendary.

If even an early-stage Saint-level Undying Warrior was unable to take this attack, how could an ordinary early-stage Saint-level combatant do so?

“Any early-stage Saint-level who encounters the Hundred Layered Waves attack will most likely die.” Linley felt extremely confident.

Raw power and level of insight were mutually supportive.

Compared to four years ago, Linley’s raw power had not increased much. But in terms of the effectiveness of his level of understanding, he had improved by dozens of times. An ordinary peak-stage combatant of the ninth rank, upon reaching the Saint-level, would generally only increase in power by around ten times or so.

“Barker.” Zassler said with a smile. “In terms of raw power, the bodies of the five of you are not one whit weaker than Linley’s. Your body, Barker, is in fact stronger than Linley’s. But in terms of insight and understanding, you are too inferior. Linley has already told you that his levels of understanding can be divided into four levels; ordinary attacks being the first, ‘wielding something heavy as though it were light’ as the second, ‘impose’ as the third, and the ‘Profound Truths of the Earth’ as the fourth. But the five of you are still at the most basic level of using raw force. Your level of understanding and insight is far too low.”

Barker deactivated his transformation, returning to his normal appearance.

“In the past four years, Lord Linley has already taught us much. But we five brothers truly…” Barker laughed awkwardly.

“Old man, do you think we are geniuses? His Lordship is around twenty five years old, but has already reached the peak-stage of the Saint-level in terms of insight and understanding.” The fifth brother, Gates, didn’t treat Zassler with any respect at all.

Zassler glanced at Gates unhappily.

“You are physically powerful and all use heavy weapons. You should easily be able to understand the level of ‘using something heavy as though it were light’. But don’t be too impatient. As long as you focus on your training, one day, you will perhaps understand it.” Linley said encouragingly.

In truth, Linley had a large, unfair advantage.

His elemental affinity was, after all, exceptional. As a magus, he naturally was able to more easily attune with nature and commune with it. Pairing his inborn elemental affinity with his proficiency with the sword, it was very natural for him to be able to quickly deepen his level of understanding.

“Yes, Lord.” The five brothers all nodded.