"Brother Beirut, you haven't yet regulated the chaotic Laws within a Divine Plane, so you don't know this. Two Lesser Sovereigns alone are simply incapable of maintaining the stability of a Divine Plane."
"Thus, during that period, the stability of the Water Divine Plane continued to decline."
"Later, the Snowfall Sovereign of Water encountered a crisis. In order to avoid it, he abandoned the Water Divine Plane and fled back to his native Material Plane to take refuge."
"After the Snowfall Sovereign left, only a single Lesser Sovereign remained in the Water Divine Plane. There was no way that one person alone could maintain its stability."
"At the time, the Water Divine Plane had at most a few million years left before it collapsed."
"Hiss..."
Even though Beirut, far away on the Yulan Plane, knew that the Water Divine Plane still existed today—meaning it had ultimately survived that crisis—he still couldn't help but suck in a cold breath upon hearing Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash reveal this secret.
From the information contained within his Sovereign spark, Beirut knew that destroying one of the world's planes was a violation of the rules.
Even Sovereigns, as powerful as they were, would be annihilated by the Overgods if they destroyed a Material Plane.
But what if a Divine Plane were destroyed?
Would only the Water Sovereigns be executed, or would all Sovereigns be punished?
Regardless of the answer, the other Water Sovereigns surely couldn't have simply allowed the Water Divine Plane to collapse.
However, judging from Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash' tone, that Intermediate Sovereign of Water, the Bilbo Sovereign, had not gone to the Water Divine Plane to regulate its chaotic Laws or improve its stability during that crisis.
"At that time, the other Sovereigns were all prepared to simply watch the Water Divine Plane collapse."
"In the end, it was Chief Sovereign Locke who stepped forward personally. He regulated the chaotic Laws within the Water Divine Plane and stabilized it..."
"Afterward, Chief Sovereign Locke convened a Sovereign Assembly and formally established the duties every Sovereign was required to fulfill."
"As for the Snowfall Sovereign, who had fled back to his native Material Plane, Chief Sovereign Locke forcibly dragged him out of it..."
"Wait, wait!"
At this point, Beirut abruptly interrupted Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash.
"Brother Pash, you just said that Chief Sovereign Locke dragged the Snowfall Sovereign out of her native Material Plane?"
"But how is that possible?"
"In a Material Plane, aside from the Sovereign whose native plane it is, any other Sovereign who enters would cause the Material Plane to collapse."
"How could Chief Sovereign Locke possibly drag the Snowfall Sovereign out of a Material Plane?"
"Could it be that Chief Sovereign Locke and the Snowfall Sovereign came from the same Material Plane?"
"Of course not."
Hearing Beirut's question, Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash laughed.
"Brother Beirut, while Chief Sovereign Locke also rose from a Material Plane, his native plane wasn't the same one as the Snowfall Sovereign's."
"Then how did Chief Sovereign Locke pull the Snowfall Sovereign out of the Material Plane?"
"Heh. The method would scare you if I told you."
"Chief Sovereign Locke directly projected the scenery around the Snowfall Sovereign into the Spatial Turbulence using the Floating Shadow technique. Then, using a method I couldn't understand, he directly opened a spatial passage to the Material Plane from within that projection..."
"Chief Sovereign Locke simply reached in with one hand and pulled the Snowfall Sovereign straight through the spatial passage into the Spatial Turbulence."
"So, Brother Beirut..."
"For every other Sovereign, a Material Plane is the greatest and strongest sanctuary imaginable."
"But to Chief Sovereign Locke, it makes no difference where you hide."
"If Chief Sovereign Locke wants to catch someone, forget a Material Plane—even if you flee to an Elemental Plane, you still won't escape his grasp."
"Hiss..."
Upon learning of Locke's terrifying abilities from Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash, Beirut, on the Yulan Plane, involuntarily inhaled sharply.
At the same time, his expression became extremely grave.
After his exchange with Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash, Beirut now understood that if, a trillion years from now, he failed to leave the Yulan Plane and travel to the Wind Divine Plane to fulfill the duties of a Wind Sovereign, Chief Sovereign Locke would certainly execute him for "dereliction of duty" and replace him with another Sovereign capable of carrying out those responsibilities.
But if he left the Yulan Plane...
He would immediately become the target of the Chief Sovereign of Light's faction, as well as those Sovereigns hoping to curry favor with Augusta.
More importantly, Beirut realized that he couldn't rely on the Sovereign Covenant to protect himself.
As Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash had clearly explained, Sovereigns of a higher rank were forbidden from attacking lower-ranked Sovereigns "without cause."
Beirut had stolen Chief Sovereign Augusta's spoils of war and had openly shown him no respect while on the Yulan Plane.
In other words...
There was already a deep grudge between Augusta and Beirut.
If Augusta attacked Beirut, it couldn't be considered "without cause."
At this moment, Beirut felt his teeth ache.
Had he known earlier that Chief Sovereign Locke possessed the ability to directly drag a Sovereign out of a Material Plane...
He would have agreed long ago to return the corpses of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns and the other three Sovereign sparks to Chief Sovereign Augusta in exchange for having the theft forgiven.
Now, however...
Chief Sovereign Augusta had already spread the word.
At the very least, the Sovereigns of the Seven Divine Planes all had to give Augusta face.
After all, regardless of anything else, Augusta was acknowledged as the strongest Law Chief Sovereign beneath the Chief Sovereigns of the Four Edicts, possessing the power to instantly kill any other Law Chief Sovereign.
If the Sovereigns of the Divine Planes refused to give him face...
Augusta might very well carry his Overgod artifact into their Divine Plane and force the other Law Chief Sovereigns to "save face."
Well...
With one exception.
The Water Divine Plane.
No matter how bold Augusta was, he wouldn't dare charge directly into the Water Divine Plane.
After all, the Water Chief Sovereign, Levlenxia, was Chief Sovereign Locke's daughter-in-law and also the adopted daughter of the Life Chief Sovereign, Wawaya.
If Augusta dared enter the Water Divine Plane, then even if Locke and the Death Sovereign didn't intervene...
The Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya would personally teach Augusta a lesson.
"Brother Pash..."
"Do you think I can still be saved?"
After thinking it over from every angle and concluding that he probably wouldn't survive another trillion years, Beirut asked Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash this question.
"No hope. Just wait to die."
For some inexplicable reason, those words slipped straight out of Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash' mouth.
"Cough... cough..."
"Haha... hahaha..."
"Brother Beirut, that was just a slip of the tongue. Don't take it to heart."
The moment the words left his mouth, Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash hurriedly tried to salvage the situation.
"In truth, Brother Beirut, as long as you don't leave your native Material Plane, no Sovereign would dare risk death by destroying it..."
"But Brother Pash, even if I stay in my native Material Plane, won't I still die once it's time to fulfill my Sovereign duties after a trillion years?"
"The only difference is whether I'm killed by Chief Sovereign Augusta or by Chief Sovereign Locke."
"Huh?"
"Brother Beirut, when the time comes, can't you just go to the Wind Divine Plane and regulate the Laws?"
"As long as you don't wander into other planes, why would the Chief Sovereign of Light dare kill you?"
"Why wouldn't he dare?"
"Uh..."
"Brother Beirut, didn't I tell you? Chief Sovereign Locke declared that every Sovereign traveling to a Divine Plane to fulfill their Sovereign duties is under the protection of both himself and the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts."
"During the period in which a Sovereign is carrying out those duties, whoever dares attack them will be personally erased by Chief Sovereign Locke..."
"..."
Silence.
"Brother Pash..."
"Sigh, Brother..."
"I'm thinking that when I can finally visit the Infernal Realm one day, I'm definitely going to have a very long talk with you..."
After thoroughly berating Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash, Beirut withdrew his divine sense, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
It was obvious that although Pash' antics had briefly wrecked Beirut's mood...
He was nevertheless extremely satisfied with this exchange.
At the very least, Beirut no longer worried that he only had another trillion years to live.
"Although the threat of death is gone now, being trapped in the Yulan Plane forever isn't a solution either..."
With his safety assured, Beirut instead began to feel restless.
He was, after all, the Wind Sovereign.
Yet he could only display his divine might within a Material Plane.
There was no sense of accomplishment in that.
What he truly longed for was the stage of the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
After living for hundreds of epochs, he had never once stood upon the world's stage as a Sovereign.
Now that he had finally become one...
How could he willingly remain trapped here?
Looking at the Sovereign sparks extracted from the other three divine beast corpses, Beirut stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"If I want true freedom..."
"I'll need the protection of a Chief Sovereign capable of standing against Chief Sovereign Augusta, someone whose presence alone would make Augusta unwilling to cross them to attack me."
"According to what Bloodpeak Sovereign Pash said, there are currently five such Sovereigns."
"Chief Sovereign Locke and the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts."
"But they have no reason to offend Chief Sovereign Augusta for the sake of a mere Lesser Sovereign like me."
"The best solution..."
"Is for me to cultivate a powerhouse capable of rivaling Chief Sovereign Augusta."
"These three Sovereign sparks are my greatest trump card."
Beirut silently pondered.
"The strength gap between each Sovereign rank is a hundredfold."
"The Sovereign sparks I still possess are all Lesser Sovereign sparks."
"For a Lesser Sovereign to rival a Chief Sovereign, their strength would need to increase by at least ten thousand times."
"That means I must cultivate a junior who possesses earth, water, and fire divine clones."
"And that junior must also possess the talent to reach Paragon in at least one affinity..."
"A Paragon Lesser Sovereign is comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign."
"Combined with the Will granted by fusing two additional Sovereign sparks, they would possess power comparable to that of a Law Chief Sovereign..."
"I've decided!"
"However..."
"I wonder how long it will take for such a genius to be born on the Yulan Plane."
After a long while, Beirut shook his head.
Finding someone whose affinity matched the Sovereign sparks might not be difficult on the Yulan Plane.
But finding a genius with the potential to become a Paragon...
That would be another matter entirely.
Even Beirut himself had ultimately fallen before the threshold of Paragon, unable to take that final step.
And Beirut considered his own talent outstanding even among the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
For a lifeform born on the Yulan Plane to surpass him in talent...
It was virtually impossible.
Then...
Was there any way to improve the talents of the lifeforms on the Yulan Plane?
Beirut spread his divine sense across the entire Yulan Plane.
Eventually...
Certain tiger-type, bird-type, and turtle-type magical beasts entered his field of vision...
...
Boom!
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"That damned Beirut! That damned Pash! That damned Wordred!"
Within the August Garden of the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff in the Celestial Realm, Chief Sovereign Augusta roared like a mad dog, unleashing attack after attack upon the flowers, chairs, courtyards, and everything else inside the garden to vent his fury.
Had anyone else witnessed the Chief Sovereign of Light in such a state...
They likely wouldn't have lived to see the next sunrise.
Furthermore, Chief Sovereign Augusta was the strongest Law Chief Sovereign beneath the Chief Sovereigns of the Four Edicts.
Ordinary Law Chief Sovereigns couldn't even survive a single exchange before being instantly killed.
Yet despite Augusta's attacks crashing down throughout the August Garden...
Not a single flower or blade of grass suffered the slightest damage.
Naturally.
Though the August Garden appeared to be a beautiful green courtyard full of life...
Its true form was Orloff's second Overgod artifact—
A material defense Overgod artifact.
In other words...
Publicly speaking, the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff now possessed both a soul-protecting Overgod artifact and a material defense Overgod artifact.
In terms of survivability, he ranked first among all Sovereigns.
It was precisely because Orloff possessed two Overgod artifacts that his status among the Chief Sovereigns of the Four Edicts stood above those of the Destruction Chief Sovereign Wordred and the Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya, second only to Locke and the Death Sovereign Lilia.
At this moment, the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff sat leisurely within a pavilion inside the August Garden, calmly sipping tea while watching Augusta rampage through the garden.
Ordinary members of the Bula Clan, when using their innate racial ability, would separate away the side of themselves they disliked.
As a result, although the separated individual was still technically the same person...
The two halves invariably looked down on each other.
They were fine when apart.
But whenever they gathered together, they often quarreled—or even fought—because of differences in personality, values, and temperament.
The Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff, however, was different.
His original body retained only his obsession with cultivation, along with his positive emotions and personality.
Because he himself possessed almost no negative emotions, Orloff had an exceptionally high tolerance for Augusta.
To a certain extent, this avoided the tendency for members of the Bula Clan to come into conflict whenever their split selves gathered together.
(End of Chapter)
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