Of course, Figaroa had another identity as well—the only son of Oakes, Commander of the Sovereign Army.
Although Oakes had not appeared within the Netherworld for many years, the legends surrounding him had never faded.
After all, back during his time as the Prefect of Shadowmoon Prefecture, Oakes had already ranked among the top ten experts of the Netherworld.
After he stopped serving as Prefect and became a Commander of the Sovereign Army, everyone believed that, after obtaining a Sovereign artifact, Oakes was absolutely a super expert capable of contending for the number one position in the Netherworld while at minimum securing a place in the top three.
No matter how outstanding Dunnington's performance had been before, the evaluations of the Netherworld's experts toward him were always that he was still slightly inferior to Oakes.
After all, while still serving as the Prefect of Shadowmoon Prefecture, Oakes had once fought evenly against a Sovereign Emissary who possessed a Sovereign artifact.
And no matter how arrogant Dunnington was, he did not believe that, with his own comprehension of only slightly over ninety percent of the Death Edicts, he could surpass Oakes.
Thus, throughout all these years, Dunnington had never gone to the Sovereign Army to seek revenge against Figaroa.
After all, if Dunnington wanted revenge, there were two existences he absolutely could not avoid.
The first was Figaroa's father, Oakes.
As Figaroa's father, Oakes would never stand by and watch his son be killed. When that time came, he would definitely interfere.
Without sufficient strength, Dunnington felt that if he went seeking revenge, he would only be killed by Oakes instead.
The second was the Sovereign standing behind the Sovereign Army.
The killing of Sovereign Army soldiers could already be regarded as a provocation toward a Sovereign.
Then if a captain of the Sovereign Army was killed, it would undoubtedly enrage the Sovereign himself.
At that point, perhaps even the Sovereign personally would make a move against him.
However, even knowing clearly that he might be hunted down by a Sovereign, Dunnington still would not give up on revenge.
After all, this was not merely for himself, but also for the countless people who had been implicated by the decisions of Figaroa and the others.
After becoming a Paragon, Dunnington's confidence swelled tremendously.
He was confident that even Oakes with a Sovereign artifact was far from being his opponent.
But what Dunnington never expected was that immediately after breaking through to the Paragon level, he would see Teacher Locke, who had once instructed him.
His divine sense spread out. Yet, even with the assistance of willpower, Dunnington still felt that the space before him that his divine sense investigated was completely empty.
It was as though, if not for the fact that his eyes could see Teacher Locke standing there, then after closing his eyes Dunnington would not even believe there was a living being before him.
Thoughts rapidly flashed through his mind, and Dunnington immediately formed certain guesses regarding Teacher Locke's identity.
At once, Dunnington slightly bowed toward Locke. "It's been a long time, Teacher Locke."
"It's just that I don't know whether I should still address you as Teacher Locke, or whether I should address you as Sovereign Locke now."
Locke turned around and looked at the much more mature Dunnington before letting out a sigh.
"Dunnington, you've grown up."
"As for how you address me, I don't really care."
"After all, although I did teach you for a period of time, I also said back then that the reason I taught you was because I wanted to accumulate teaching experience for children I might have in the future."
Hearing Locke's confirmation, Dunnington immediately understood.
It seemed that his "Teacher Locke" and the "Sovereign Locke" from the legends who had once spread a marriage contract across the entire skies of the Netherworld tens of millions of years ago were actually the same person.
Among Dunnington's friends, there were naturally no shortage of water-element experts.
From their words, Dunnington could easily imagine just what sort of profundity that marriage contract—which allowed countless water-element experts to achieve breakthroughs—contained.
The reason those water-element experts remained in the Netherworld was because they hoped that when Sovereign Locke's child was born, there would once again be some event similar to the public display of the marriage contract that would allow water-element experts to make another breakthrough.
It was just that before this, Dunnington had never connected his "Teacher Locke" with this "Sovereign Locke."
And after learning that Teacher Locke was a Sovereign, Dunnington now possessed a much deeper understanding of many things.
Perhaps from the very beginning, all of his actions had been observed by Teacher Locke?
Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Teacher Locke to appear before him immediately after he broke through to become a Paragon.
"Then Teacher Locke, did you come to see me this time because there's something you need?"
Straightening his body, Dunnington asked Locke.
"Yes. Dunnington, now that you have already become a Death Paragon, the Blackstone Robe's effect on you is now equivalent to merely a material-defense Sovereign artifact."
"Therefore, I would like to exchange a material-defense Sovereign artifact for the Blackstone Robe. I wonder what your thoughts are?"
"The Blackstone Robe? You mean this gray cloth short robe I'm wearing?"
Hearing Teacher Locke's words, Dunnington was momentarily stunned.
Over all these years, because his own strength had been sufficient, Dunnington had never encountered any enemy capable of placing him in mortal danger.
Thus, even until now, Dunnington still did not know that this gray cloth short robe on his body could actually rival a material-defense Sovereign artifact.
"Yes. The Blackstone Robe you are wearing is one of the tokens of the Death Overgod."
"The Overgods are existences even more powerful than Sovereigns within this universe."
"Their tokens possess certain special abilities capable of rivaling Sovereign artifacts."
"As one of the Death Overgod's tokens, aside from defense, the Blackstone Robe also provides an enormous enhancement to one's affinity with the Death Edicts."
"For someone cultivating the Death Edicts, the Blackstone Robe is even more useful than a Sovereign artifact."
"So, throughout all these years, although I paid attention to you, I still waited until after you became a Paragon before personally appearing to discuss exchanging for the Blackstone Robe."
"An Overgod token?"
Dunnington suddenly understood.
All these years, he had always wondered about something.
His home plane had merely been an extremely ordinary material plane. How could someone like Figaroa—a captain of a Sovereign Army and a major figure even within the Netherworld—possibly go there?
Now it seemed they had gone there precisely to carry out a Sovereign's mission and search his home plane for the item on his body.
"Teacher Locke, there's a question I want to ask you."
After understanding some of the truth, Dunnington removed the tattered short robe he had been wearing beneath his inner clothes and held it in his hands.
"Yes, I can roughly guess what you want to ask."
Locke nodded and said, "That's right. I was the Sovereign who discovered that the Overgod token was hidden within your home plane."
"However, because a Sovereign's true body cannot enter a material plane, I issued a Sovereign mission and sent Figaroa and the others to your home plane, having them search for traces of the Overgod token on my behalf."
"As for you, from the very first moment I met you, I already knew that what you were wearing was the Blackstone Robe."
"Then Teacher, since the Overgod token you were searching for was already on me, why didn't you just take it directly from me? Why did you still teach me cultivation, and even remind me to wear it when I went to seek revenge in the end?"
Looking at the Blackstone Robe in his hands, Dunnington asked Locke.
This truly was something he could not understand.
"And who exactly do you think I am?"
Hearing Dunnington's confusion, Locke raised a brow and coldly snorted.
"I am a Chief Sovereign standing at the pinnacle of all Sovereigns."
"The existence of Sovereigns is meant to maintain the stability and order of the divine planes. As the strongest Chief Sovereign, I naturally should abide by the rules of this world even more."
"Indeed, back then I had ten thousand different methods to seize the Blackstone Robe from your hands."
"But if I truly resorted to forceful seizure and coercion against you, then what difference would there be between me and those officials and nobles from your plane?"
"Furthermore, I had already assigned the mission of searching for the Blackstone Robe to my subordinates long ago. If I had personally taken the Blackstone Robe here, then where would that leave the subordinates working for me?"
"To me, it doesn't matter who initially possessed the Blackstone Robe or who possessed it along the way."
"As long as I can ensure that in the end it returns to my hands, that's enough."
"That does fit quite well with the image I have of you, Teacher Locke."
Dunnington nodded upon hearing this.
"Teacher Locke, if I remember correctly, back in the material plane, I was killed by your subordinate."
"I think that at that time, this Blackstone Robe should already have been presented to you by Figaroa and the others, right?"
"And generally speaking, creatures who enter the Necropolis Realm can only recover the memories of their previous life after becoming gods."
"Yet I alone recovered my memories shortly after entering the Necropolis Realm, and at the time this Blackstone Robe was still on me."
"Were all these things related to you, Teacher?"
"Yes, all of those things were indeed done by me."
Locke nodded, not denying it.
"When I first decided to use you to accumulate teaching experience, I already discovered that you possessed extraordinarily high talent in cultivating the Death Edicts."
"However, throughout all these years, including among the Sovereigns, there has not been a single living being capable of cultivating the Death Edicts to the Paragon level."
"So, I guessed that compared to the other three Edicts, perhaps cultivating the Death Edicts to the Paragon level required experiencing a special stage."
"That stage was truly dying once and comprehending the true essence of death. Perhaps that was the most crucial step toward breaking through to the Paragon level in the Death Edicts."
"Therefore, when you went to seek revenge, I did not stop you and allowed Figaroa to kill you."
"Afterward, I went to request the assistance of the Chief Sovereign of Death. With her help, I found your soul after it entered the Necropolis Realm. After returning the Blackstone Robe to you, I then had the Chief Sovereign of Death restore your memories."
"It could be said that ever since you recovered your memories, I have been observing you for these past five hundred thousand years."
"On one hand, I wanted to see whether, after experiencing death once, you truly could become the first person to cultivate the Death Edicts to the Paragon level under the assistance of the Blackstone Robe, just as I had predicted."
"On the other hand, I also wanted to exchange a Sovereign artifact for the Blackstone Robe the very moment you became a Paragon."
"…"
Dunnington remained silent.
From Teacher Locke's words, Dunnington could hear the expectations and trust Locke held toward him.
It was almost as though, regarding whether he could break through to become a Death Edicts Paragon, Teacher Locke possessed even more confidence than he himself did.
(End of Chapter)
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
Read up to 50 chapters ahead!
patreon.com/AminaSims
Next Bonus Chapter at 2000 Powerstones