The moment Yagonia said something needed to be taken, Oakes immediately stored it in his interspatial ring.
By the time they were finally done packing, the City Lord's Manor of Shadowmoon Prefecture had been all but emptied out.
One could only imagine the next Prefect Lord stepping into the residence and wondering if bandits had somehow dared to loot the lord's own manor.
After sweeping the place clean, Oakes took out a metal lifeform from his interspatial ring. Once the whole family boarded, it turned into a streak of light and vanished from Shadowmoon Prefecture…
Inside the metal lifeform, Oakes and Yagonia sat above in the hall-shaped interior, while Figaroia paced back and forth across the floor like an ant, muttering something under his breath the whole time.
"Roa, can't you sit still for a moment?" Yagonia finally snapped. "What are you mumbling about?"
"Ah?"
"Hehe, Mother, I'm just too excited!"
"Father is about to become a Sovereign's Emissary!"
"And he'll even receive a Sovereign artifact personally bestowed by Lord Sovereign…"
Bang!
Before Figaroia could finish, Yagonia slammed her palm down on the table, startling both Oakes and Figaroia.
"Oh? So, you're starting to get carried away again, are you?"
She shot him a cold look.
What kind of person her son was—after all these years, how could she not know?
To put it bluntly, the moment the boy twitched, she already knew what nonsense he was about to spew.
"You'd better remember this clearly," Yagonia said icily. "The one becoming a Sovereign's Emissary and receiving a Sovereign artifact is your father, not you!"
"Haha… hahaha…"
"Mother, isn't it basically the same thing?"
"If Father has one, doesn't that mean I have one too?"
"Besides, if it weren't for me, how could Father ever have been taken in by Lord Sovereign?"
Oakes had originally been quietly listening to Yagonia scolding their son, but when he heard Figaroia's tone, the faint smile on his face disappeared.
It seemed that ever since Lord Locke's identity as a Sovereign had been revealed, his son had started reverting to how he used to be as a child.
"Roa."
"F-Father."
The moment he saw the expression on Oakes's face, Figaroia's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly stood at attention.
His mother was one thing.
After all, Figaroia was a Highgod who had fused two profound mysteries.
Yagonia, on the other hand, was merely an ordinary Highgod who had become one by refining a divine spark.
No matter how angry she got, the whip landing on his body barely hurt. All Figaroia had to do was pretend it did, and she would calm down.
But his father was different.
In front of Oakes, Figaroia was little more than a chick.
And if he dared cry out in pain while being beaten, Oakes would only hit harder.
"It seems," Oakes said slowly, looking at him, "that Lord Locke's teachings back then gave you the wrong impression."
"You think I was accepted under Lord Locke because your reckless words happened to catch his attention?"
"You're wrong."
"When your father—I—was still a Demigod, I once faced a life-and-death crisis. It was Lord Locke who saved me."
"So, in order to repay that life-saving grace, I chose to serve under him."
"At that time, Lord Locke already had countless powerful experts beneath him. I wasn't even qualified to be one of his subordinates."
"But Lord Locke did not despise my weakness. Instead, he taught me many things."
"It was under his guidance that I became what I am today."
"Do you know what Lord Locke said to me after he first met you, back at the City Lord's Manor of Blackstone City?"
Figaroia's face had already gone pale.
Oakes's voice turned colder.
"He said that it was only because you still possessed some filial piety—because you weren't entirely beyond saving—that he hadn't given up on me."
"Otherwise, I might already have been abandoned by Lord Locke back when I brought you to Hell for the Millennial Celebration."
Not just Figaroia—even Yagonia was hearing these words for the first time.
For a moment, cold sweat streamed down Figaroia's face.
"Roa, you were my first child. Perhaps I spoiled you too much in the beginning, and that's what shaped your current temperament."
"But now I must make this clear."
"If you cause Lord Locke to form an unfavorable opinion of me…"
Oakes's voice dropped.
"…then you'd best run as far away as possible. So far that I can never find you."
"Otherwise…"
He left the rest unsaid.
Because truthfully, even Oakes himself did not know what choice he would make if it came to that.
But Figaroia clearly misunderstood.
He took that unfinished sentence as a direct threat.
At once, he no longer dared act out and quietly sat down in his chair.
"Sigh…"
Seeing father and son like this, Yagonia let out a long sigh.
In the end, it really was still a failure of her own parenting.
"Oakes."
"What is it, Niya?"
"This time, isn't Lord Locke appointing you as the commander of a Sovereign Army?"
"…Yes?"
"Take Roa with you. Let him join Lord Locke's Sovereign Army as well."
"What?!"
The words made both Oakes and Figaroia jump to their feet.
For ordinary gods without any backing, joining a Sovereign Army was undoubtedly a dream opportunity.
Once you donned the Sovereign Army's cloak, almost no one would dare provoke you.
But for gods with status and connections, it was a bottomless pit.
Just look at the interplanar war tens of thousands of years ago.
How many soldiers from the Sovereign Armies had died?
Although the various factions dragged into the war had also suffered enormous casualties, the ones hit hardest had still been the Sovereign Armies.
According to the calculations of those who kept track, among the seven divine planes and four higher planes, there had originally been seventy-seven Sovereign Armies.
After that war, only forty-four remained.
That meant thirty-three Sovereign Armies had been annihilated.
Even now, there had still been no word of those armies being reformed.
Those well-informed knew why:
their Sovereigns had fallen.
Oakes was one thing.
His own strength was already formidable, and once he received Lord Locke's material defense Sovereign artifact, it could be said that unless he encountered a Paragon Highgod, his safety was all but guaranteed.
But Figaroia?
If another interplanar war broke out, someone of his strength would be among the first to die.
"Mother… do you want me dead?"
"Niya, there's no need to go that far…"
Coming back to himself, Oakes hurriedly tried to soothe her.
"No, Oakes. I'm serious."
Yagonia waved him off.
"I'm very clear-headed right now."
"The reason the two of us have come this far is, above all else, because Lord Locke values you."
"Of course, you haven't let Lord Locke down either. You cultivated step by step and reached your current level of strength."
Oakes let out an awkward laugh.
Yagonia might not know the full story, but Oakes did.
If he hadn't made the unilateral choice back then to become a deity through the body, his strength might have been even greater now.
And as for the fusion of different Laws—after all these years, he still hadn't even touched the threshold.
Even his Wind Laws had stalled at the eighth profound mystery.
With achievements like these, how could he possibly say he hadn't disappointed Lord Locke?
If Lord Locke truly valued his strength that much, how could he have ever said he would abandon Oakes if Figaroia turned out to be worthless?
Oakes understood better than anyone:
what Lord Locke valued was not merely strength.
It was character.
If Lord Locke revealed his identity as a Sovereign, countless experts at the Prefect Lord or Asura level would flock to serve him.
Others held Oakes in high regard.
But only Oakes himself knew that without his soul mutation, he likely wouldn't even have caught Lord Locke's eye.
That was why, all these years, Oakes had always carried out Lord Locke's affairs with utmost diligence.
"I love Figaroia very much," Yagonia said quietly.
"But I also know that I cannot allow him to ruin us."
"Oakes, if we lose a child, we can have another."
"But if you are dragged down because of Figaroia…"
"…then this entire family is finished."
Her words left both Oakes and Figaroia completely stunned.
Especially Figaroia.
The moment he heard his mother say we can have another child his mind went blank.
Over the years, he had seen many powerful experts in Shadowmoon Prefecture.
Because of that, he understood one thing deeply:
without his father, he was nothing more than a tiny shrimp in the Underworld, something anyone could crush with a single hand.
"Now," Yagonia said, turning to him, "tell me your choice, Roa."
"Will you follow your father and join Lord Locke's Sovereign Army, serving under him?"
"Or will you leave our protection and go out into the world on your own?"
"But you must understand this clearly."
"The Sovereign Army is Lord Locke's army."
"Everyone within it has only one identity—Lord Locke's subordinate."
"Even if your father is its commander, if he dares show favoritism toward you, he will certainly earn Lord Locke's displeasure."
"So, within the Sovereign Army, you will receive not the slightest special treatment from your father."
"But if you choose to go out on your own, others may at least hesitate to kill you because your father is the commander of a Sovereign Army."
She looked at him steadily.
"You have until we reach the Nether Mountains."
"Before then, you must give me a clear answer."
(End of Chapter)
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