Book 6: Chapter 12 – Linley’s Proposal To The Dragon’s Pitt

Of all those present, aside from the group Cesar arrived with, Ace was the only one who didn't seem surprised by this development.

After waking up, Ace's soul had gone from that of a peak saint to that of a prime saint. Unless he entered the shadows, there was no way Cesar could escape Ace's [Observation], and yet, somehow, not only Cesar but their whole group had managed to get so close without his realising.

The only thing that made sense was that Cesar had hidden all of their presences within his Godrealm.

Still, now that Cesar was no longer actively hiding his aura, even Ace could only marvel. The energy he radiated was so overwhelming, it was frightening.

"Goddam shitty old fart!" Wukong cursed, his insults cleanly cutting through the rising tension as though a warm knife through butter. "You broke through before this king was ready!"

"I told you, you're way too young to even think about catching up with this old man," Cesar smirked as he glanced at Wukong before turning his attention to Ignus. "Now, where were we?"

"Ce… No, Lord Cesar," Ignus voiced, his tone becoming extremely humble all of a sudden. "You and I have never had any problems in the past…"

"True," Cesar nodded before leaking a hint of his dreadful killing intent. "But as annoying as the little ape is, you just tried to kill one of my fellow sect members in front of me. That's no small slight."

"No, wait, you can't!" Ignus frantically replied. "You know Lord Beirut's rules, no deity can kill a saint or mortal unless they were directly offended.

I admit that my ignoring you was rude on my part, but I never meant to offend you, nor did I know that you had joined the same faction as Miss Arianna."

Cesar's eyes faltered slightly at the mere mention of the mysterious king of the forest of darkness – the level of influence Beirut had on the various powerhouses of the continent could be seen clear as day.

"Lord Cesar," Linley said respectfully. "If I may…"

"Aah right, I almost forgot," Cesar palmed his face. "You said you wanted to speak to the dragons about something. Go ahead."

"Thank you, Lord Cesar," Linley replied, bowing his head slightly before turning to face the current king of the dragons. "King Ignus, I presume. My name's Linley Baruch, the current head of the Baruch Clan.

 The reason why I wanted to talk to you was to propose an alliance between your Dragon Pitt and my Baruch Clan."

"Alliance?" Ignus snorted disdainfully. "Your clan is the reason my fellow dragons were forced to retreat into the depths of the forest of darkness all those years ago. Why would we dragons ever agree to such a foolish proposal?

Don't think because you have a deity backing you up that, you can force us to submit to you; we may not be as strong as you humans, but we Dragons still have our pride!"

The more he spoke, the more enraged Ignus became. Upon hearing Linley's brazen proposal, he became so incensed that he no longer paid attention to Cesar's presence. He had a bottom line, and if they were determined to cross it, he would go all out with them, even if it meant death.

He could still vividly remember the time when his own father was killed by Baruch himself.

At the time, he didn't have the power to help him, but now that he did, he vowed he would never let it happen again.

Linley wasn't surprised by the reaction of Ignus; before Hogg had relinquished his seat as head of the clan to his eldest son, he had explained everything about the Clan's history. As such, he knew that the chances of this succeeding were slim to none, especially not without the power to back it up.

Still, an opportunity like this didn't come around often, and if he were going to stand any chance at taking down the church, he would need all the help he could get.

"First of all, I need you to understand that the dragon whose blood I ingested to awaken my bloodline wasn't one we hunted down but chose to target all of us. If it wasn't for Ace and my familiar teaming up to take it down, all of us would've been killed instead." Linley explained, calmly keeping his composure, even in the face of such a powerful magical beast. "And second, I understand how this must sound, but I don't mean for you to submit to us; I meant that this would be a partnership of equals."

"Equals, everyone knows your Baruch Clan is nothing but a shell of your former selves. What could you possibly bring to the table?" Ignus sarcastically asked, unable to hide his disdain.

"Myself!" Linley replied straightforwardly. "I don't know how I compare to my ancestors, but of all the dragons I've met so far, the current purity of my bloodline far surpasses each of them – including yours.

I won't deny that you would bring more to the table initially, but in the future, when I reach maturity and bring back my Clan's glory days, you and all the dragons from the Dragon's Pitt will only benefit.

I'm not being arrogant, I understand that I can't stand here and guarantee that I'll become a deity in the future, but you know just as well as I do that all direct descendants with an awakened bloodline of my Baruch Clan will inevitably reach the peak of the Saint Realm.

In my human form, I'm only at the seventh rank as a warrior, but upon transforming, I'm able to jump straight to the early stages of the saint realm. When I reach the peak of the saint realm in my human form, I won't stand here and say that I'll definitely be able to defeat a genuine deity, but at the very least, I'll be invincible amongst saints."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Linley couldn't help but glance at Ace and Wukong and smile bitterly as he was forced to correct himself. "Well, almost invincible."

Ignus wasn't in a hurry to respond immediately. He had to admit that everything Linley said was right, and as much as he hated it, there was virtually nothing he could do to stop the next rising of the Baruch Clan, especially with him having a seemingly good relationship with Cesar.

Even though Linley didn't say it, he was no fool; he knew that with the purity of Linley's bloodline, upon reaching the peak of the saint realm, he would undoubtedly have the power to go head-to-head with a deity as though he himself were one, and that didn't take into account the fact that even the most ordinairy of Divine Beasts would become Demi-Gods upon reaching maturity.

He didn't know if the fact that Linley had absorbed the blood of a Divine Beast instead of being born with it meant that it had somewhat diluted, but it didn't matter; it was all but guaranteed that unless he suffered an accident and was killed early, he would definitely surpass him at some point.

And that said nothing of the little rat-type beast standing on his shoulders. With his senses and wealth of experience, how could he not sense that the rat was a Divine Beast, something exceedingly shocking to him, especially with there apparently being two present – the other being Leo.

He understood that even if Linley really was unable to become a demi-god in the future and, like him, was stuck as a saint for what felt like an eternity, his familiar would, without question, become a deity, at which point, their Baruch Clan would have at least two beings that were far superior to him.

Still, his pride wouldn't allow him to submit so easily, especially not to someone he didn't believe was worthy.

Following the line of sight of the young Baruch Clan patriarch, looking at Ace, a thought came to mind.

"As it stands," Ignus began. "Have you gained insight into any of the profound laws?"

Linley's brows furrowed, not understanding why he was asking that, but he decided to answer honestly as he hadn't been outright rejected. "No, not yet."

"In that case, you are unworthy of leading us dragons," Ignus declared matter-of-factly.

"Eek eek eeeek!" Bebe screeched passionately from atop Linley's shoulder, clearly not pleased with the Dragon King's decision.

As a fellow magical beast, Ignus was able to understand that the little rat was telling him that he would regret it and that his boss would surpass him soon, and then he would be begging for his forgiveness.

Still, Ignus didn't take offence, especially knowing its potential. Ignus merely cleared his throat before continuing. "But I'll give you a chance to earn our support in the future. If, before you break through to the saint realm, you're able to not only begin comprehending a profound law but also raise your comprehension to match that of a peak saint, I will agree to your terms.

But if you agree to the conditions of our bet and fail to meet the standards, you must agree to join the Dragon Pitt as my subordinate in the future, and that includes both your Clan and familiar."

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Book 12: Part 19 – Ace Becomes a Paragon!