Gol D. Ace In Coiling Dragon

This was probably the first time in the history of the Yulan Plane that a battlefield had been so silent. The lack of noise was almost palpable as everyone tried to come to terms with what just happened.

In the moments before his death, Byrius had broken through and become a genuine prime saint, making him one of the strongest experts on the side of the O’Brien alliance.

Even with his injuries, other than Fain and Jordon – due to his weapon – no one should’ve been his opponent. And yet, Aiden Rohault, a man incapable of sensing, let alone using, the profound mysteries of the laws, easily reaped Byrius’ life with little to no effort.

From the last report they read on him, Aiden, despite being a mortal at the ninth rank, unable to utilise a single profound mystery, was able to easily fight and defeat a powerful peak saint like Lanke.

Still, according to Lanke, he, at most, was equal to those top-tier peak saints like the Holy Emperor of the Radiant Church, the Dark Empress of the Cult of Darkness, and Byrius – before his breakthrough.

It had to be remembered that although the difference between peak and prime saints was only one step, it was a step that halted the steps of the vast majority of saints. In terms of actual power, the difference was like night and day. A single prime saint should be able to handle ten top-tier peak saints.

When taking all of that into consideration, the shock those spectators were currently undergoing was very much understandable.

“Well, that was anti-climactic,” Wukong said as he looked in the direction Byrius’ corpse fell.

Wukong was fully aware of the history between Byrius and Aiden. As such, he was very much looking forward to the day when the two finally met again after all the time, never believing for even a second that Aiden would lose.

He was someone who loved a good face-slapping. As such, he couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of anticipation at the thought of seeing Byrius’ expression when he lost to his master’s husband after all these years.

In comparison, this was indeed extremely anti-climactic.

The truth was, although Byrius saw Aiden as a rival/archnemesis, the same couldn’t be said vice versa. After their very first fight, Aiden had never seen Byrius as anything but a defeated opponent.

Even after being poisoned and being forced to essentially create a brand new path to power, that remained the case.

Had Byrius not stopped to attack him and instead carried on fleeing, Aiden would’ve been too lazy to bother with him. Unfortunately, things hadn’t panned out in such a way.

Whilst everyone else was getting over the shock of Aiden’s power, Ace couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

Though he hadn’t said it, ever since his master left to attempt to make his breakthrough, he had been deeply concerned. As a fellow user of the [Imposing Devourment], he understood the implications of failure, especially after almost crippling himself the first time he used it.

To make matters worse, he had used it on his physical body and dantian, his master, was using it on his soul, which was several times more fragile. Failure would undoubtedly mean certain death.

As for Aiden’s dramatic increase in strength, Ace saw that as a given. It had to be remembered that when fighting, Aiden drew his power from his use of impose, which in turn drew his power from the strength of his soul.

Previously, Aiden’s soul had only approached that of a Demi-God, yet upon using impose, his body was able to match that of a peak saint. Now, with his soul having broken through to the realms of a Demi-God, upon using Impose, Ace guessed that his master’s body was able to match that of a prime saint, and even that was a conservative estimate.

The deathly silence came to an end as a terrifyingly palpable killing intent suddenly surged forth.

“You killed him?” Fain asked, his tone getting decidedly colder as he stared at his junior brother’s unmoving corpse. “Is your Yin-Yang Pavilion trying to start a war with my O’Brien Empire?”

Aiden merely glanced at Fain, still rubbing his temples before uttering a single word. “Idiot.”

Before anyone could react to his words, Aiden’s body flickered, appearing in front of his disciple.

“What did you say?” Fain asked, his reddened eyes glaring at the back of the so-called invincible mortal.

Aiden’s brows furrowed as he turned to Fain. His rubbing his temples wasn’t just an act; his head was genuinely throbbing!

Though he had been successful with his breakthrough, calling the pain he was currently under excruciating was a gross understatement. He felt as though his soul was literally being burnt from the inside out.

Fortunately, ever since he had first started walking this new path of his, his pain tolerance levels had skyrocketed to unimaginable levels.

Still, the pain of taking his soul to the Demi-God level was like nothing he could’ve ever imagined previously. As such, his patience was at an all-time low. Thankfully, it wasn’t to the point where he had forgotten all sense of reason.

He understood the current precarious position of the Pavilion, or at least he thought he did.

Before he left, his wife was still the only person capable of fighting at the deity level, and although individually, she was stronger than the War God and the High Priest, she hadn’t reached a level where she could fight them both on her own.

He knew Mathias could break through whenever he wanted, but that would effectively be ruining his future.

Add that to the fact that, other than his brother’s Rohault Empire, just about every major force secretly wanted the Pavilion to fall so as not to put so much pressure on their own forces; he knew that if a war were to break out, it would effectively be the Yin-Yang Pavilion against the world.

In 100 years or so, when his disciple and the other students of the pavilion had fully matured, the Pavilion’s standing would be fully secured with no one daring to bare their fangs at them, but until then, he couldn’t afford to do anything to jeopardise their future.

Because after completing his breakthrough, he came straight over to find his disciple, he had no idea that Cesar had also become a deity, making it so that even if all the other human forces really chose to form an alliance, they still wouldn’t easily provoke the Pavilion.

Had he known that, he wouldn’t care so much about provoking the O’Brien Empire. Still, because he didn’t know that, he chose to explain himself – something he was usually too lazy to do.

“I had been here since the beginning of the war,” Aiden explained. “Regardless of what happened, I had absolutely no interest in intervening. It was your foolish junior brother who chose to attack me; I simply defended myself.

I called you an idiot because you seem incapable of understanding such simple logic. If, despite knowing that, you still choose to start a war with us, feel free.”

As he said to there, Aiden’s previously indifferent and seemingly unfocused eyes became fearfully sharp, as a frightful killing intent, which didn’t seem to lose out to Cesar’s, surged forth, all but completely suppressing Fain’s. “Just know that should you make that choice, none of you will be leaving here with your lives!”

Between Aiden’s previous display of power and his exceedingly potent killing intent, the eyes of Fain’s allies constricted as their hearts threatened to beat out of their chests as the fear of death threatened to overwhelm them.

Unlike Aiden, they were fully aware of Cesar’s breakthrough. They knew that as it stood, the Yin-Yang Pavilion had two experts with the power of a deity, and now, if you add Aiden, they also had two experts who appeared to have the power of a prime saint.

It must be remembered that, although on paper, the Yulan Empire was the equal of the O’Brien Empire, in reality, they were anything but.

The War God and High Priest were equals, true, but when it came to saints, Fain was the only person still alive on either side to become a prime saint. On his own, he could slaughter all of the Yulan Empire’s peak saints and still have energy to spare, say nothing of O’Brien’s other saints.

Of the rest of the continent’s prime saints, none of them belonged to any of the major forces. All of them choosing to seclude themselves from the secular world, focusing on trying to break through and become deities.

As a result, even if all the other major forces – excluding the Rohault Empire – were to form an alliance, with the Pavilion having two experts at the prime saint level, the chances of them winning were slim to none, and even if they did, at what expense. The price they would have to pay would be catastrophic.

“No, we have no such intentions,” Felicia hurriedly but respectfully interjected. “We, of course, believe your words. If you say you didn’t intend to involve yourself, then you didn’t intend to get involved.”

“Hahaha, some alliance,” Fain laughed sadistically as he glared at Felicia and the rest of his spineless, so-called allies before turning back to the murderer of his junior brother, a vicious grin taking shape as his grip around his sword tightened. “I have long since heard the tales of the abilities of the so-called ‘invincible mortal’. It would be a shame not to see your power for myself.

Don’t worry; I’m not representing my O’Brien Empire. This is just a simple challenge from one expert to another.”