A single offensive Sovereign artifact could increase an Asura Prefect's attack power by at least tenfold.
Attack power at that level was enough to instantly kill an ordinary Asura Prefect or severely wound a powerful one.
The deterrence each type of Sovereign artifact provided was completely different.
To experts wielding offensive Sovereign artifacts, Gislason and Gaia both equipped with material-defense Sovereign artifacts, were their natural nemeses.
But to Asura Prefects who did not possess offensive Sovereign artifacts, Fedman, Patriarch of the Black Tortoise Clan, was the one they truly had to fear.
News of the assault on this branch of the Four Divine Beasts Clan had already spread.
Gislason and Fedman were undoubtedly already rushing over to provide support.
Although their side outnumbered the Four Divine Beasts Clan by two Asura Prefects, if they truly clashed, they would probably all be killed in an instant.
...
"Gaia are you alright?"
Within the Yulan Plane, Gislason finally arrived.
The moment he saw Gaia the taut string in his heart finally relaxed.
However...
When he looked beyond Gaia and saw the empty expanse behind her...
A bad premonition immediately arose.
"I'm alright, Big Brother."
"But everyone else... including Frarino... is gone."
Wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes, Gaia's face was as cold as ice.
"Who did it?"
Gislason roared.
Although he had long known that the Four Divine Beasts Clan would become the common enemy of every expert who came to the Yulan Continent...
He had never imagined that, out of the three teams they had split into, one would be completely wiped out in only a few decades.
More than a hundred Six Star and Seven Star Fiend elders...
Even within the Four Divine Beasts Clan, that represented nearly one-tenth of all their elders.
What enraged Gislason even more...
Was that his brother-in-law, Frarino, had also fallen here.
It had to be understood...
Not every member of the Four Divine Beasts Clan who had come to the Yulan Plane still possessed divine clones.
After three thousand years of warfare...
Many of the experts who had returned to the Infernal Realm from the Seven Divine Planes and the other three Higher Planes had already lost their divine clones.
Many of them had refined divine sparks with their Saint-level original bodies to restore their former strength.
Frarino...
Was one of them.
For people like him...
Death truly meant death.
"I couldn't tell."
Gaia said in a low voice.
"But I've memorized their soul auras."
"If I encounter them again..."
"I'll definitely recognize them."
Gaia recognized none of the five Asura Prefect-level experts who had ambushed her.
Although she had lived for over a thousand calendrical cycles...
She had rarely ever left the Infernal Realm.
Most of the Asura Prefect-level experts she knew came from the Infernal Realm, along with a few famous experts from the other Divine Planes.
As for ordinary Asura Prefect-level experts like these...
They weren't famous enough for their reputations to spread throughout the various planes.
Many of them Gaia had only heard about by name.
Even if they stood directly before her, she still wouldn't know who they were.
Fortunately...
Now that she had memorized their soul auras...
Learning their identities in the future wouldn't be difficult.
"Little Sister, I'm here!"
Less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea after Gislason and Gaia reunited...
Fedman also arrived.
"Big Brother, what's the situation?"
Like Gislason...
Seeing that Gaia was safe allowed Fedman to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
As children of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns...
Like their parents, all of the siblings had become Deities using their original bodies.
None of them possessed additional divine clones.
If they died within the Yulan Plane...
They would truly disappear forever, just like their parents.
Of course...
Gislason and Fedman also knew that Gaia possessed a material-defense Sovereign artifact.
At worst, she would merely be banished into the spatial turbulence.
But to the current Four Divine Beasts Clan...
Being banished into the spatial turbulence was little different from dying.
They no longer had a Sovereign capable of entering the spatial turbulence to rescue their brothers and sisters.
Fortunately...
Gaia was still alive.
"They aren't from the Infernal Realm."
Gislason answered Fedman's question with a single sentence.
In truth...
Even before rushing to rescue Gaia Gislason had already guessed as much.
After relocating all the clansmen from the other planes back to the Infernal Realm...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan had become the undisputed giant of the Infernal Realm.
If, at the height of its power, a branch of the Four Divine Beasts Clan stationed in another plane could suppress the combined forces of the five strongest local clans...
Then today's Four Divine Beasts Clan in the Infernal Realm possessed enough overall strength to overturn the entire Infernal Realm and exterminate most forces outside the Four Divine Beasts Clan.
The only survivors would be the clans that housed Sovereign Emissaries.
Even then...
That was only because the Four Divine Beasts Clan refrained from acting out of respect for the Sovereigns.
On the other hand...
It was also because the Four Divine Beasts Clan's top-tier combat strength still wasn't enough to eliminate all those Sovereign Emissaries working together.
After all...
At present, only the four patriarchs and Gaia possessed Sovereign artifacts, giving them strength comparable to six or seven ordinary Sovereign Emissaries.
Any more than that...
And the Four Divine Beasts Clan simply couldn't handle them.
If the Four Divine Beasts Clan dared attack the clans of the Sovereign Emissaries...
Those Sovereign Emissaries would have no objection to joining forces and wiping out the Four Divine Beasts Clan altogether.
"Damn it!"
Fedman cursed angrily.
Yet all he could do was rage helplessly.
"We've already withdrawn from every plane outside the Infernal Realm."
"Why are these people still refusing to let us go?"
Gislason remained silent.
In truth...
He had expected this outcome.
At the height of the Four Divine Beasts Clan's power...
Gislason had never been unaware of what many of the clansmen had done.
However...
With his father and uncles backing them...
He had never felt there was anything wrong with their actions.
Now...
His father and three uncles had fallen.
The Four Divine Beasts Clan had lost its greatest shield.
Their past conduct...
Had become the bitter fruit they now had to reap.
Clearly...
For some people...
Simply exterminating the Four Divine Beasts Clan's branches in their respective planes was still not enough to satisfy the hatred they bore toward the clan.
It was easy to foresee that...
Sooner or later...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan's headquarters in the Infernal Realm would likely face an invasion launched by the great clans of the other planes.
If the Four Divine Beasts Clan survived this assault...
Then even without the protection of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns...
They would have truly secured their footing.
But if they showed even the slightest sign of weakness during this war...
Even more forces would undoubtedly join the campaign against them.
When a whale falls...
All creatures feed.
Clearly...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan was that whale on the verge of collapse.
Everyone wanted to obtain enough resources from the Four Divine Beasts Clan to elevate either themselves or their own clans.
"Enough, Fourth Brother."
Gislason reached out and restrained the furious Fedman.
"These people still covet our Four Divine Beasts Clan."
"I suspect they'll continue targeting us."
"For everyone's safety..."
"Let's regroup all our forces."
"Our clansmen don't have much Sovereign power left."
"The battles ahead..."
"Will have to be carried by the three of us."
"When that time comes..."
"Fedman..."
"You'll be our trump card."
"Your sister and I will use the innate divine ability, 'Dragon Roar,' to slow our enemies."
"Then you'll seize the opportunity and kill anyone we've slowed in a single strike."
"I want everyone to understand..."
"Even though the Four Divine Beasts Clan has lost the protection of the Sovereigns..."
"We're still here."
"Anyone who offends the Four Divine Beasts Clan..."
"Will be pursued to the death!"
"To the death!"
...
After Locke intervened and opened a new plane within the Yulan Plane to serve as a battlefield for Deities...
The Sovereigns all speculated that Lord Locke intended for Beirut to produce the remaining three Sovereign sparks he had seized from the Light Chief Sovereign and use them as prizes for the Deities competing here.
Even Beirut himself couldn't help but think the same.
After all...
If that weren't the case...
Why would Chief Sovereign Locke go to such lengths to create an entirely new plane within the Yulan Plane?
With that thought in mind...
Beirut's heart stirred.
He immediately sent his darkness divine clone to the Yulan Continent's interplanar teleportation array and traveled to the Netherworld.
For Beirut...
Now that he had become a Sovereign...
What he desired most was freedom.
He did not wish to spend the rest of his life trapped within the Yulan Plane.
His original plan had been to cultivate a Paragon possessing earth, water, and fire divine clones.
After refining the three Sovereign sparks...
Such a Paragon would possess strength comparable to a Law Chief Sovereign and would be powerful enough to protect Beirut after he left the Yulan Plane.
Now...
The events unfolding within the Yulan Plane had certainly drawn Chief Sovereign Locke's attention.
If exchanging those three Sovereign sparks could earn Chief Sovereign Locke's protection...
Beirut was naturally willing to pay such a price.
Compared to nurturing a Paragon himself...
Chief Sovereign Locke was obviously the more reliable choice.
After Locke created the deeper plane within the Yulan Plane...
The various Sovereigns all extended their divine senses into the Yulan Plane to observe the battles between the Deities.
At present...
Within the Yulan Continent...
Even Six Star and Seven Star Fiends couldn't make the slightest splash.
Only battles between Asura Prefects were worthy of the Sovereigns' attention.
Moreover...
Compared to the battles within the Planar Battlefield...
The fighting here was even fiercer.
After all...
Even during the bloodiest moments of the Planar Wars...
Fewer than a hundred Asura Prefect-level experts had participated.
This time...
More than thirteen hundred Asura Prefect-level experts had gathered on the Yulan Continent.
In truth...
That wasn't difficult to understand.
Within the Planar Battlefield...
No matter how many enemies one killed...
The rewards were ultimately limited to Sovereign artifacts and Sovereign power.
Here in the Yulan Plane...
If someone found one of the Sovereign sparks left behind by the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns...
Refining it would allow them to become one of the lofty Sovereigns themselves.
Although these Asura Prefects all liked to claim that the current Sovereigns had merely stumbled upon Sovereign sparks through luck...
If the opportunity were presented to them...
Each and every one of them wished that same stroke of luck would fall upon themselves.
Everyone looked down on Sovereigns who had become Sovereigns through luck...
Yet everyone also hoped that, in the very next moment, they would miraculously find a Sovereign spark and become a Sovereign themselves!
Among the Sovereigns observing the Deities' battles...
Were also several Sovereigns serving under the Light Chief Sovereign.
When they saw Beirut's darkness divine clone leave the Yulan Plane...
They immediately sent a divine sense message to the Light Chief Sovereign, Augusta.
After receiving the news...
Augusta spread his own divine sense throughout the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes, searching for the destination of Beirut's divine clone.
At the same time...
While extending his divine sense...
Augusta tore open space and entered the spatial turbulence, traveling through it.
Very soon...
He discovered Beirut upon the Undead Holy Mountain in the Netherworld.
After hesitating briefly...
Augusta tore through space once more and appeared before one of the interplanar teleportation arrays within the Light Divine Plane.
Without requiring the Sovereign Army soldiers to activate it...
Augusta simply stood upon the teleportation array and poured Sovereign power into the formation beneath his feet.
A flash of white light appeared.
The next instant...
Augusta arrived at the teleportation array within the Netherworld.
Directly tearing through space to enter another Divine Plane or Higher Plane was considered a provocation toward that plane's ruling Chief Sovereign.
Had Beirut traveled to one of the Seven Divine Planes or the Celestial Realm...
Augusta would have had no reservations and would have entered directly from the spatial turbulence.
But because Beirut had gone to the Netherworld...
Even Augusta could only enter the Netherworld the same way ordinary Deities did...
By using the interplanar teleportation array.
There was no helping it.
Even Orloff—the original body of Augusta, the Fate Chief Sovereign—would not dare barge directly into the Netherworld while wearing all three Overgod artifacts.
Within the Netherworld...
The Death Chief Sovereign, who possessed the Heart of the Netherworld, wielded power comparable to that of an Overgod.
Overgod artifacts could completely defend against attacks at the Sovereign level...
But Orloff had no confidence they could withstand attacks from the Death Chief Sovereign when she was fighting with power comparable to an Overgod.
Then there was Chief Sovereign Locke...
A being Orloff had never been able to see through.
Locke's intervention this time had given every Sovereign a new understanding of his strength.
Chief Sovereign Locke...
Had very likely already surpassed the level of a Sovereign and stepped into the realm of the Overgods.
Because of that...
Not only Augusta...
Even Orloff himself would have to use the teleportation array if he wished to enter the Netherworld.
Augusta's luck was fairly good.
The Netherworld possessed only two interplanar teleportation arrays.
The one at which he arrived happened to be the same one Beirut had used...
The teleportation array atop the Undead Holy Mountain.
Augusta spread out his divine sense.
It didn't take long before he locked onto Beirut's location.
Immediately...
Augusta transformed into a streak of golden light and sped toward Beirut.
After arriving in the Netherworld...
Beirut flew directly toward Mount Nether.
After all...
This wasn't his first visit to the Netherworld, so he was already quite familiar with the route.
However...
Not long after leaving the teleportation array...
Beirut suddenly felt an immensely powerful divine sense lock onto him.
(End of Chapter)
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