Linley Baruch

Linley Baruch is the eldest son and heir of the diminished Baruch clan. His discovery of the Coiling Dragon Ring brings him the tutelage of Doehring Cowart, while his bond with Bebe and his aptitude for earth and wind magic give him paths to power beyond his clan's incomplete Dragonblood inheritance. What begins as a child's wish to restore his family expands into a journey through empires, Higher Planes, the Planar Battlefield, and the conflicts of Sovereigns. (Chapters 1–806)

Across that journey, Linley remains driven less by rank for its own sake than by the people attached to it. He pursues revenge for his parents and Doehring, builds a state in which the Baruch clan can endure, protects companions whose battles become his own, and ultimately gains the power and methods needed to establish a future cosmos. His development repeatedly turns private grief into disciplined action without erasing the loyalties that made that action meaningful. (Chapters 113–806)

Biography

Dragonblood Heir and Doehring's Student

Linley grows up in Wushan as the eldest son of Hogg Baruch and heir to a clan whose name is ancient but whose household has dwindled to Hogg, Linley, and young Wharton Baruch. He takes Hillman's physical training seriously because restoration of the Baruch name is both an inherited obligation and a way to meet his father's exacting hopes. Learning how highly magi are valued gives the boy a second route toward that duty when the clan's Dragonblood training appears inaccessible. (Chapters 1–13)

The Coiling Dragon Ring reveals the spirit of Doehring Cowart, who secretly teaches Linley earth and wind magic. Under Doehring's guidance, Linley patiently befriends the infant Shadowmouse Bebe until the beast willingly forms an equal bond with him. At Ernst Institute, Linley combines formal magical education with concealed training and finds a second family in Yale Dawson, George Walsh, and Reynolds Dunstan. (Chapters 25–47)

Doehring also teaches Linley the Straight Chisel School, in which a single tool, strength, and an earth magus's perception of stone turn carving into spiritual training. Linley's years of solitary practice accelerate his magical progress, strengthen his concentration, and establish the self-discipline that later survives repeated upheavals. By fifteen he has grown into a tall, steady fifth-rank dual-element magus and fourth-rank warrior, no longer merely preserving a legacy but building a cultivation path that is distinctly his own. (Chapters 37–48)

Love, Loss, and Fenlai

At Ernst, Linley's extraordinary discipline exists alongside the warmth of dorm 1987 and his growing confidence as both magus and sculptor. His romance with Alice Straf gives him an unfamiliar happiness, but her choice of Kalan wounds him deeply. Linley answers the breakup through art: Awakening From the Dream transforms the relationship into a Grandmaster-level sculpture, wins public acclaim, and lets him process the loss through the same demanding practice Doehring taught him. (Chapters 49–110)

Hogg's death and the truth surrounding Lina redirect Linley's pain toward Clayde Boleyn. He engineers a private confrontation, poisons Clayde so the king cannot draw on battle-qi, and demands to know what happened after Lina's abduction. Clayde's answer links Linley's lost mother to a power even the king fears. The resulting struggle turns Linley from a celebrated young court figure into an enemy of the Fenlai throne and the Radiant Church, with family justice outweighing status or safety. (Chapters 110–140)

Linley ultimately kills Clayde during the catastrophe that destroys Fenlai, but the victory is inseparable from a greater loss: Doehring expends his remaining soul to save him. Linley collapses afterward, abandoning training and withdrawing even from his worried sworn brothers. Bebe reminds him of Doehring's final wish that he live well, and Linley chooses endurance over self-destruction. He leaves with the adamantine heavy sword, resolves to uproot the Radiant Church when he has the strength, and accepts that he must become his own foundation. (Chapters 140–169)

O'Brien Empire and Baruch Restoration

Linley spends more than a year crossing the core of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, treating danger as a training ground instead of rushing directly into revenge. He learns to combine physical power and Dragonblood battle-qi in the adamantine heavy sword, progressing from efficient control to “wielding the heavy as though it were light” and creating Thunderbolt. This sustained work marks a decisive change: after Doehring's death, Linley can now diagnose his own weaknesses, design his own regimen, and pursue strength without a mentor directing each step. (Chapters 170–171)

In the O'Brien Empire, Linley ceases to be a solitary fugitive and becomes the center of a durable alliance. He rescues Jenne and Zassler, gathers Barker Armand and the other Armand brothers, and establishes a hidden community beyond the Radiant Church's reach. Reuniting with Wharton makes clan restoration immediate rather than abstract, while supporting his brother's marriage and renewing his bond with Delia Leon ties his expanding power to family responsibilities. (Chapters 208–248)

Encounters with fighters such as Desri, Hayward, and the War God's disciples deepen Linley's understanding of the gap between exceptional Saints and the ancient powers above them. He nevertheless turns personal strength into political security by contesting the Anarchic Lands, unifying its territory, and founding Baruch rule. By the time the kingdom becomes an empire, Linley is a husband, father, and founder who plans for descendants, prohibits religious institutions from undermining the state, and entrusts governance to Wharton rather than clinging to a throne himself. (Chapters 248–327)

Necropolis and Deityhood

Within the pocket dimension, Linley pursues the Throbbing Pulse of the World while Delia trains nearby, and his progress brings him to the threshold of new power. The invitation to the Necropolis of the Gods appeals to both his cultivator's need to advance and his family-minded wish to obtain divine sparks for Wharton or Delia. He accepts the risk because constant retreat would make growth impossible, entering alongside powerful Saints with caution but also with a willingness to stake himself on a larger future. (Chapters 328–329)

The Necropolis forces Linley to function as both combatant and protector. Against masses of Abyssal Blade Demons, he fights with Bloodviolet and the adamantine heavy sword, holds a disproportionate share of the attackers, orders tactical withdrawals, and endures wounds while companions escape. Later deityhood changes the scale of his abilities: divine wind power reveals Bloodviolet's sharper nature, and a golden drop from the Coiling Dragon Ring transforms his Dragonform into an azure-gold body whose strength exceeds his earlier divine form. (Chapters 358–389)

Back on the Yulan continent, Linley faces the instability released from the Gebados Planar Prison and relies on allies such as Dylin and Tarosse while protecting Dragonblood Castle. Victories supply divine sparks and artifacts that he distributes to Wharton, Barker, and Haeru, strengthening the community rather than hoarding every gain. Once the local crises subside, he entrusts the clan to Wharton and leaves for the Infernal Realm with Delia and Bebe, accepting separation from his children as the cost of the next stage. (Chapters 419–449)

Infernal Realm and Four Divine Beasts

The Infernal Realm immediately overturns the scale by which Linley has measured danger: its gravity and restrictions are severe, ordinary arrivals may be killed casually, and even the guards around a transport formation eclipse many experts of the Yulan continent. Linley studies these differences instead of assuming his old status matters. He keeps Delia and Bebe close, recognizes their limited resources, and begins again as a newcomer whose first task is learning the economy, factions, and survival rules of a Higher Plane. (Chapters 450–451)

Travel and Fiend work turn that caution into adaptable strength. Linley continues fusing the profound mysteries of wind, and when Ganmontin attempts to take Olivier, he refuses to abandon an old acquaintance merely to avoid a dangerous commander. His Blackstone Prison combines a special gravitational focus with fused earth mysteries, letting him control the battlefield and close against a stronger-ranked opponent. That intervention demonstrates how his loyalties have widened: the power once pursued for private revenge now obliges him to stand between coercive forces and people he considers his own. (Chapters 492–534)

Arrival among the Four Divine Beasts clan gives Linley a larger ancestral home but also binds him to its war with eight great clans. After the Ancestral Baptism, he serves in Bloodbath Gorge and learns that every assignment may cost experienced clansmen their strongest divine clones. He accepts leadership and the ruthless necessities of the feud while questioning its endless cycle. The conflict finally ends through Beirut's intervention and a Sovereign's command; amid that resolution, Linley unexpectedly completes his earth Highgod breakthrough before the assembled clans and Sovereign. (Chapters 576–618)

Netherworld and Planar Battlefield

As a Highgod, Linley gains a far stronger earth soul, access to deeper divine power, and the ability to repair the flaw in his soul-protecting artifact more effectively. Beirut also fashions him the godspark sword Mirage, whose near-invisibility and sharpness suit both Linley's physical strength and his fused earth techniques. Even after becoming the figure whose potential frightened the eight great clans into reconsidering their war, he responds to the breakthrough by inspecting limits, refining tools, and continuing methodical training. (Chapters 619–620)

Linley's next goal is personal: he travels through the Netherworld seeking the souls of his parents. On the Abyssal Mountain he protects fellow travelers with Blackstone Space, faces nearly undetectable green snakes, and chooses to pursue the Abyssal Fruit despite knowing that the opportunity may be lethal. The journey changes his family's losses from memories that motivate him into people he might actually recover, and it places him in direct dealings with the Chief Sovereign of Death rather than leaving resurrection as an impossible wish. (Chapters 642–666)

On the Planar Battlefield, Linley and Bebe navigate the Stellar River, fight commander-class opponents, and encounter defenses that can survive both Bebe's innate attack and Linley's Firmament Splitter. Leylin explains the authority carried by Paragon and Sovereign Will, giving Linley a clearer measure of the heights beyond ordinary Highgods. After the battlefield, the Chief Sovereign of Death searches for his family; the truth about Lina is clarified, Hogg's memories are restored, and Linley finally reunites with the father whose death had defined so much of his youth. (Chapters 666–714)

Overgod Mission and Sovereign Ascension

Reunion with Hogg gives Linley a joy greater than his earlier cultivation breakthroughs, and he patiently proves his identity through shared Baruch memories, the Coiling Dragon Ring, and Bebe. His restored power also lets him act for his sworn brothers: seeing how Odin's cruelty has scarred Yale, Linley searches the Netherworld, defeats the Lord Prefect who tries to shield Odin, and delivers the enemy for judgment. The avenger of Fenlai has become powerful enough to answer another person's grief without losing control of the larger purpose. (Chapters 715–716)

Reports of the nine soul pearls, pentametal crown, and red caltrop diamond draw Linley into the Overgod talisman mission. He investigates patiently over years, resists attempts by Sovereigns to seize the objects, and depends on Beirut's carefully prepared route back toward the Yulan Plane. The flight through chaotic space exposes Beirut's long guardianship and places Linley between Teresia and Augusta. Rather than surrender the mission's result, he crosses the boundary from Highgod conflict into the hidden struggle that has shaped the Four Divine Beasts clan since its ancestors died. (Chapters 738–761)

After becoming a Sovereign, Linley combines his unusually transformed soul, Dragonblood body, and powers from different elemental Laws. His first clash with Augusta shows both the might of his strengthened tail and the need for restraint when Orloff's involvement threatens everyone behind him. In the final conflict he kills Augusta, survives Orloff's supreme attack by fusing four Sovereign powers, and becomes the first-rank Grandmist controller of his cosmos. He manifests replacement Sovereign sparks and receives the methods needed to create the future Linmeng Cosmos, but Chapter 806 states that he has not created it yet; he first returns to Delia, Bebe, and the Baruch family. (Chapters 784–806)

Appearance and personality

As a child, Linley is notably serious and physically disciplined, able to sustain Wushan's training stance alongside older children. By fifteen, repeated exercise and elemental nourishment have made him approximately 1.8 meters tall, with a steady bearing that contrasts with Bebe's liveliness on his shoulder; he is also frequently associated with a sky-blue robe. His Dragonform is more dramatic: scales, horns, and a tail turn his body into a weapon, and the golden blood from the ring eventually changes the scales to an azure-gold color. (Chapters 1–48, 389)

Linley's defining trait is sustained concentration. He can devote years to carving, heavy-sword control, or the fusion of profound mysteries, and he treats each breakthrough as a reason to inspect the next limitation. That discipline is paired with pragmatism—he avoids a likely Saint-level beast's territory when he lacks the power to challenge it, retreats when survival requires it, and recognizes that wealth is useless without strength. Yet threats to family or companions can make him uncompromising, especially when Clayde, the Radiant Church, Odin, or Augusta endangers people under his protection. (Chapters 48–171, 716–784)

Grief repeatedly tests that self-control. Alice's departure becomes a sculpture, Hogg's death becomes a campaign for truth, and Doehring's sacrifice first drives Linley into despair before Doehring's last request moves him back toward life. As his status rises, his loyalty grows more communal rather than less personal: he distributes divine sparks, entrusts rule to Wharton, intervenes for Olivier, and returns to his family after reaching power beyond the old cosmos. His capacity for revenge therefore coexists with tenderness, gratitude, and an enduring preference for home over ceremony. (Chapters 110–169, 448–449, 534, 806)

Abilities and cultivation

Linley begins as a dual-element earth and wind magus while building his body through warrior training. Doehring's instruction lets him use earth magic with unusual sensitivity, and the Straight Chisel School turns that affinity into spiritual cultivation. His Baruch blood later enables the Dragonblood Warrior transformation, dramatically increasing his speed, strength, defense, and close-combat potential. These branches reinforce one another: magical perception guides sword techniques, physical power lets him exploit heavy and flexible weapons, and sculpture trains the spiritual focus required for later soul and Law breakthroughs. (Chapters 13–48, 140–171)

His earth path develops through the Throbbing Pulse of the World, layered vibrational attacks, gravitational control, Blackstone Space, and the Blackstone Prison. With the adamantine heavy sword he progresses through efficient force, “wielding the heavy as though it were light,” Thunderbolt, and increasingly profound attacks that culminate in techniques such as the Voidwave Sword and Firmament Splitter. His wind path emphasizes speed, flexibility, and the fusion of the Fast and Slow aspects of velocity; Bloodviolet and later Mirage translate those insights into material sword attacks. (Chapters 170–208, 328–358, 492–534, 619–666)

At the divine level, Linley creates and develops separate divine clones while his shared soul benefits from each transformation. His four-way Soul Mutation allows powers that are normally separate to fuse, and his Dragonblood body eventually rivals or exceeds Sovereign artifacts in key respects. Refining multiple Sovereign sparks amplifies those advantages; when four Sovereign powers merge into gray energy, his body, souls, and sparks transform beyond the system that governs ordinary Sovereigns. This final fusion lets him manifest replacement Sovereign sparks and gives him the methods and capacity to form a future cosmos, although he has not yet completed that creation by Chapter 806. (Chapters 389–449, 618–620, 761–806)

Power progression

Relationships

• Bebe: Linley wins the infant Shadowmouse's trust through patience rather than domination, and their equal bond becomes the most continuous partnership in his life. Bebe trains, travels, fights, and grieves beside him from Wushan to the final Sovereign conflict. Their mental connection repeatedly gives each a warning, confidant, and tactical partner, while Bebe's report that he can no longer sense Linley briefly convinces the family that Linley has died outside their cosmos. (Chapters 25–50, 168–171, 666, 806)

• Delia Leon: Delia becomes Linley's wife and the calm center of the household he builds after Fenlai. They train together in the pocket dimension, raise a family in Dragonblood Castle, and choose the Infernal Realm journey together. Linley protects her without treating her solely as someone to be sheltered, and her presence continually connects his cultivation to a life beyond combat; his return at the end is first understood through the relief of Delia and the family gathered around her. (Chapters 287–329, 389, 419–451, 806)

• Doehring Cowart: Doehring is Linley's hidden teacher, surrogate grandfather, and first guide to both magic and stone sculpting. His lessons establish Linley's patience, elemental perception, and spiritual discipline, while his help makes the equal bond with Bebe possible. Doehring's destruction of his own soul to save Linley creates the deepest crisis of Linley's youth; remembering his final wish eventually gives Linley a standard for using power to preserve another person's future. (Chapters 25–48, 168–169)

• Hogg Baruch and Wharton Baruch: Hogg gives Linley the duty and education of an heir, while Wharton gives that duty a living future. Linley's revenge begins in Hogg's final investigation, his political work secures Wharton's branch of the clan, and his Netherworld journey ultimately restores father and son to one another. Even at his highest rank, Linley measures success through the safety and continuity of this family rather than through a title. (Chapters 1–13, 208–248, 448–449, 713–715)

• Yale Dawson, George Walsh, and Reynolds Dunstan: The brothers of dorm 1987 give Linley companionship outside bloodline and cultivation. They celebrate his gifts, worry through his collapse after Doehring's death, and remain people for whom he will cross planes or confront entrenched powers. His pursuit of Odin for Yale shows that the oath survives vast differences in lifespan and rank; their rush to greet him in the final chapter confirms that he still returns as their “Third Bro.” (Chapters 37–50, 168–169, 715–716, 806)

• Beirut: Beirut first enters Linley's life through Bebe's heritage, then becomes patron, strategist, and the protector behind the Baruch branch's survival. He ends the Four Divine Beasts clan's war, forges Mirage, and later reveals how the Coiling Dragon Ring and Linley's development fit a plan that reaches into Sovereign politics. Linley repays that guardianship by facing Augusta and protecting the Yulan branch, while still making his own judgments when Beirut's ambitions expose them to danger. (Chapters 326–329, 617–620, 761–805)

Items

The Coiling Dragon Ring is the artifact that begins Linley's hidden education by housing Doehring's spirit. It remains his link to his mentor after Doehring's soul dissipates and later proves to be a damaged soul-protecting Sovereign artifact that Linley can repair more effectively as a Highgod. Its golden blood also strengthens and alters his Dragonform, while its connection to Beirut reveals that Linley's earliest discovery was part of a much older design. The Straight Chisel is the practical counterpart to that inheritance, turning Doehring's teaching into years of spiritual training and the masterpiece Awakening From the Dream. (Chapters 47–48, 110, 168, 389, 619–620, 715)

Linley's early weapons express distinct stages of his growth. Slaughterer is the Baruch ancestral warblade whose recovery Hogg desires, and the Secret Dragonblood Training Tome preserves the clan method he is expected to inherit. Bloodviolet serves as a fast, flexible divine sword suited to wind insights, while Bladeless, the adamantine heavy sword, becomes the instrument through which Linley learns precise force, Thunderbolt, and earth-based vibration attacks. Together they trace his movement from recovering family symbols to creating techniques no manual could supply. (Chapters 13–48, 98–171, 208, 358–389, 715)

Later artifacts operate on the scale of Higher-Plane combat. The Black Stone forms the core of Linley's extreme gravitational field and Blackstone Prison, while Mirage is Beirut's nearly invisible godspark sword, named for the blur it leaves at speed and used to execute Firmament Splitter. These tools are effective because they fit Linley's own fused mysteries and transformed body; neither substitutes for cultivation, and both become most dangerous when his tactical control forces an opponent to fight at the range and gravity he chooses. (Chapters 492–534, 619–620, 666)

Several finite-use artifacts support Linley before and during the Higher-Plane journey. The Pearl of Life supplies life energy that can rapidly heal bodily injuries but cannot save a destroyed soul or body, while the Golden Soul-Pearl strengthens and replenishes a soul through refined essences. In Moon Lake Castle, Linley binds and collects Moon Rings as proof of the group's Fiend trial. He and Bebe later use Deathgod Golems as remotely controlled scouts and lures on the Planar Battlefield, accepting that the expendable constructs may be destroyed without exposing their own bodies. (Chapters 350–386, 417, 467–479, 672–686)

The Overgod mission centers on the Nine Soul Pearls, Pentametal Crown, and Red Caltrop Diamond, objects Linley tracks through Fiend Castle reports before their pursuit draws Sovereigns around him. The Overgod Decree supplies the mission's divine claim, but Linley's refusal to yield the completed opportunity matters more than possession alone. The resulting Life Overgod Sword lets him survive Orloff's overwhelming attack long enough to fuse a fourth Sovereign power, after which his own transformation surpasses the artifact's role as his ultimate defense. (Chapters 738–761, 805–806)