Chapter Nine: Timeliness
Hearing Ogawen mention his name, Lin Lei let out a cold laugh deep inside.
Just moments ago, this Ogawen hadn't held anything back when trying to kill the three of them. Now that even Desli's divine clone had been destroyed, he suddenly claimed he didn't want to kill Lin Lei—only Olvia. It was obvious he'd grown somewhat fearful of Tarosha and Di Lin.
"You want to kill Olvia but not Lin Lei?" Di Lin pretended to ponder for a moment.
He had no particular feelings toward Olvia. Lin Lei, on the other hand, was different. When Di Lin had fled back to the Yulan Continent plane alongside the Three-Headed Six-Eyed Golden Beast, it had been because of Lin Lei. In the Divine Tombs, Lin Lei had also saved his son. Most notably, Lin Lei had given him a divine spark without asking for anything in return.
Naturally, Di Lin would protect Lin Lei.
"This Olvia has nothing to do with me," Tarosha said with a grin, looking at Ogawen.
Ogawen felt a brief wave of relief.
"But what does that have to do with whether I get involved or not?" Tarosha said with a wicked smile. "You tell me not to interfere, and I'm supposed to just stand aside? People would think Tarosha is afraid of you. If you're smart, you'll scram right now, and I might spare your life. Otherwise..."
Tarosha extended one hand, and a long cyan whip materialized in his grip. At first glance the whip resembled a green serpent, and it emanated a chill of its own, causing the surrounding air to show faint signs of freezing. Tarosha flicked the whip casually, and it produced a crisp crack.
"Are you leaving, or are you going to make me drive you off?" Tarosha clearly didn't take Ogawen seriously in the slightest.
Ogawen's gaze swept past Tarosha and Di Lin, settling on Olvia with a look that seemed ready to devour him whole.
Ogawen hesitated for a moment.
"Fine. Since you two feel this way, I'll give you face. I—" Ogawen's mouth spoke one thing, but his right index finger suddenly pointed at Olvia. A streak of white light shot from the fingertip, splitting the sky in an instant and even tearing spatial afterimages. The white beam hurtled directly toward Olvia, not far away.
"Hisss~~" Where the beam passed, the air trembled.
Its speed was terrifying.
"Hmph." Tarosha squinted slightly and let out a disdainful snort.
"Crack!" The cyan whip lashed out like a great serpent, simultaneously elongating from its original three or four meters to thirty or forty, thick as a bowl. The whip smashed down upon the beam like a colossal python's tail. Wreathed in a faint cyan glow, it shattered the white beam into nothing.
"Lord Tarosha, thank you," Olvia said in a low voice. He was a man who remembered kindness.
Still, Olvia understood perfectly well that he had no real relationship with either Tarosha or Di Lin. They were intervening only on Lin Lei's account.
Olvia glanced over at Lin Lei.
Lin Lei simply smiled at him. "Olvia, as long as Lord Tarosha has stepped in, there won't be any problem today."
"Of course—I am Tarosha, after all!" Tarosha declared with a carefree, smug laugh, all the while flicking his cyan whip and moving like a phantom, easily trading blows with Ogawen.
After a brief exchange, Ogawen confirmed that the Tarosha before him was a formidable force even among mid-tier gods.
Normally, Ogawen never acted without certainty. He would absolutely not keep fighting Tarosha like this. But... his son was dead. For countless years, aside from pursuing the limits of cultivation and gaining ever-greater power, his sole purpose had been raising his son. His son was the apple of Ogawen's eye—his very life.
"Tarosha, you forced my hand!!!" Ogawen's face twisted into a demonic snarl.
"Oh? Got something special up your sleeve? Show me!" Tarosha shot straight up into the sky, and Ogawen pursued him at once. Once these two mid-tier gods truly fought with everything they had, the shockwaves alone could critically wound—or even kill—Lin Lei and the others below.
Ogawen's subordinates.
"Leave now." Ogawen's voice resonated in the minds of the two surviving lower-tier gods. Of the four lower-tier gods, Ogawen's son and the black-robed man were both dead—one killed by Lin Lei, the other by Olvia. Only two remained.
"The situation is bad. Let's go!" The two surviving lower-tier gods exchanged a glance and immediately obeyed Ogawen's command, fleeing at full speed.
Lin Lei, Olvia, and Di Lin were still carefully watching the duel between the two mid-tier gods overhead.
"Hm? They're running." Di Lin was the first to notice.
"Where?" Lin Lei realized in an instant—the two lower-tier gods had already vanished beyond the horizon.
Lin Lei's expression darkened. "Desli's divine spark! That silver-robed man has Desli's divine spark!" Once a divine clone was destroyed, the original body—no matter how well it understood the Law of Light—could never again receive heaven's blessing and condense a Light-attribute divine spark.
However...
The original body could still refine that Light divine spark.
The refining process would take very little time, and his power could be restored quickly. But if he did so, Desli would never be able to cultivate any other law for the rest of eternity.
"Don't worry." Di Lin's figure blurred as he moved to chase after the silver-robed man.
"Whoosh!"
From within Ogawen's body overhead, a crimson figure suddenly shot out. This blazing red apparition wielded a matching crimson knight's lance and lunged directly at Di Lin. Di Lin was immediately entangled by the figure, unable to break free for the moment.
"Ogawen—he has two bodies!" Lin Lei was stunned.
He and Olvia exchanged a look of mutual shock. Ogawen possessed not only a Light divine clone but also a Fire divine clone. His two divine clones fought Di Lin and Tarosha simultaneously, and for the moment the battles were evenly matched.
Ogawen's strength was truly astonishing.
Although Lin Lei wanted to chase after the silver-robed man, he had already used "Wind's Whisper" once and then taken Ogawen's killing blow head-on to protect Olvia. His spiritual energy was nearly depleted, and his soul had been shaken to its core.
In truth, Lin Lei could have used "Wind's Whisper" twice and still had energy left over.
Most importantly, Olvia had killed Ogawen's son. Ogawen had gone completely mad. That final blow had been devastating. Fortunately, Lin Lei possessed an incomplete defensive divine artifact—without it, he would not have survived.