Linley’s decision was quite wise, because after the arrival of this Lord Prefect from the Jadefloat Continent, every few months or every few years, someone would come. Some wanted to curry favor with him, while others wanted to ask him to help them with something. Still others wanted to take Linley as their teacher.
In short, many came to disturb him. Fortunately, the Four Divine Beasts clan stopped them all, making it so that no one could see Linley.
Actually, it was normal for many people to come see Linley. After all, Paragons rarely publicized their residences. It was very hard for people to locate Paragons.
Within Linley’s estate. “Uncle,” Ina looked suspiciously at Linley. “Just now, that person who wanted to come visit you thought up a method to deliver this letter. And indeed, the letter states quite clearly the nature of the injustice done to him, and he really is quite pitiable. Uncle, why can’t you be so kind as to help him?”
Linley couldn’t help but chuckle as he glanced sideways at Ina.
“Nana.” Bebe stared at his daughter. “Who knows how many grudges and how much hatred the Infernal Realm holds? You want your uncle to help one person, but what about the countless other grudges? In the Infernal Realm, people are being killed at every moment of every day. Do you think every person who died deserved to die? They died unjust deaths as well. Do you want your uncle to make the entire Infernal Realm his enemy, and go get revenge for every single person who died?”
Ina was stunned. She and Wade lived under the protection of Linley and Bebe, and so they had almost never suffered. They weren’t like Linley, who had walked a fine line between life and death to his current level. They saw the affairs of the world so simply.
“If I were to help people who are neither family nor friends, then I would need a trillion clones.” Linley chuckled.
Ina let out an adorable sniff, her nose wrinkled.
“Forget about the affairs of others; there are many personal matters that I haven’t carried out very well.” Linley shook his head and sighed.
“Eh?” Ina looked at Linley, puzzled.
Linley simply chuckled, not going into detail. Although these days had been peaceful and happy, Linley noticed how his father, Hogg, would occasionally stare blankly into space when he was by himself.
Linley understood that his father missed his mother. Linley had always been thinking to himself… that one day, he should go pay a visit to the Divine Light Plane and ask for the Chief Sovereign of Light to restore his mother’s freedom.
TIME FLOWED ON, and in the blink of an eye, a hundred years passed. On this day, quite a few people were gathered within Linley’s estate.
“Third Bro suddenly shut himself inside a few days ago. All of his clones are in training. He said that he reached a critical moment… but a sudden flash of insight should be very fast. Why hasn’t he come out yet?” Reynolds couldn’t help but glance at a distant corridor.
George just laughed calmly, “Why the rush? You have eternal life now.” Reynolds, hearing this, couldn’t help but laugh as well. Indeed, to Deities who were untouched by time, ten years or a hundred years was nothing.
“Eh, Third Bro is coming!” Yale said. Reynolds and the others all turned to look. Even some of the chatting, laughing people located in the grassy area some distance away noticed that a figure had emerged from the corridor, a figure with long, unbound brown hair. It was Linley.
Linley was in a fairly good mood today. “I’ve trained for a hundred years, and now I’ve finally fused these two types of profound mysteries together.”
It was exceedingly hard to fuse profound mysteries of different Laws. After becoming a Soul Mutate, his soul had increased in power enormously, and yet he still had to spend so many years before making a true breakthrough.
“And this is just the beginning. Next I will fuse three kinds… and the amount of time I will have to spend will increase exponentially. My goal is fusing four.” Linley was quite eager as well. If he was able to fuse four types of profound mysteries from different Laws, how powerful would he become? Most likely, he would be able to kill even Paragons.
“Boss.” Bebe ran over.
“Where is my father?” Linley asked.
“Uncle’s in his room. I haven’t seen him today,” Bebe said.
“Right. I’ll go find my father.” Linley glanced towards the others, then moved towards his father’s residence. After completing his training, Linley’s first thought was that it was time to go to the Divine Light Plane. “Regardless of whether or not I will be successful, I still at least need to go see the Chief Sovereign of Light and try asking.”
6
OVERGOD ARTIFACT
“Father!” Linley stepped into the room.
Hogg, currently reading a book, lifted his head. Seeing Linley, he couldn’t help but smile. “Linley, I heard you were in closed-door training. What, did you make a breakthrough?”
“Right.” Linley nodded, then sat down to the side. “Father, in two days, I plan to head to the Divine Light Plane to go visit the Chief Sovereign of Light. I want to see if there is any hope of finding mother and letting her regain her freedom.”
“Huh?” Hogg’s hands trembled. The book fell to the table as he stared at Linley, stunned. “Linley, you are going to the Divine Light Realm? But… last time, didn’t you tell me that in the Planar Wars, you killed members of the Augusta clan? Isn’t the Chief Sovereign of Light the ancestor of the Augusta clan? For you to go will be very dangerous.” Hogg was frantic.
Hogg knew about virtually all of Linley’s experiences over the years.
“Father, don’t worry. The Chief Sovereign of Light has 182 children, and that’s just in the second generation. The one I killed was a third-generation member. The Augusta clan has more than a thousand individuals in the second and third generations. The Chief Sovereign of Light won’t care about it.” Linley was absolutely certain about this.
If the Chief Sovereign of Light cared, Reisgem wouldn’t have dared to have organized them to attack.
“But he is still a Chief Sovereign. It would be utter simplicity for him to kill you.” Hogg was very worried.
“Precisely because he is a Chief Sovereign, he wouldn’t lower himself to kill me,” Linley said comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Father! The Chief Sovereign of Light and I don’t have a grudge against each other. If he wants to kill me, he has plenty of methods to do so. But he’s done nothing!”
“Didn’t you say that there is no hope?” Hogg asked.
“I said the chances were very low.” Linley laughed bitterly. “But if I don’t at least try, I can’t be sure. If I give it a try, I might be successful. Sovereigns wish for Paragons to be their Emissaries. Perhaps, given my status, there’s a slight sliver of a chance that the Chief Sovereign of Light would restore my mother to freedom.”
“A slight sliver of a chance…” Hogg nodded slightly
Hogg looked at Linley, then said solemnly, “Linley, you are no longer a child. You have your own ideas and thoughts about what to do… but as your father, I must warn you that if this will be dangerous, you had best not go! I admittedly don’t know much about Sovereigns and Paragons, and thus can’t say much on that subject. I’ll let you make your own decisions. But safety first! You and Wharton… the two of you are just as important as your mother to me.”
“Right.” Hearing this, Linley felt… as though he were a child again, listening to his father instruct him.
Linley’s decision was to go find Patriarch Gislason the next day.
Within the hall.
“What?” Gislason, who had just sat down, couldn’t help but stand in shock. “Linley, you say you are going to go to the Divine Light Plane to visit the Chief Sovereign?”
“Right.” Linley laughed calmly. “I’m just coming to let you know that this trip of mine will take at least ten years and perhaps up to a hundred. All I can do is to go beg the Chief Sovereign of Light.”
Gislason hesitated, then said, “Linle
y, based on what I learned from Father in the past, the Chief Sovereign of Light isn’t a very amiable person. The Chief Sovereign of Light is extremely arrogant, and extremely domineering. If you go beg him… the chance for success truly is very low. In addition, I’m worried that if you say a single word not to his liking, he will kill you.”
“Arrogant and domineering?” Linley frowned.
Gislason nodded. “Right. The countless planes of the universe have a total of eleven Chief Sovereigns. The strongest are, of course, the Chief Sovereigns of the four Edicts! As for the other seven, the Chief Sovereign of Light is the strongest.”
Linley understood. The Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts were indeed mighty.
But he hadn’t expected… that of the Chief Sovereigns of the seven Elemental Laws, the Chief Sovereign of Light was the mightiest.
“Why is the Chief Sovereign of Light more powerful than the other Elemental Chief Sovereigns?” Linley asked, puzzled.
Gislason was the son of the Azure Dragon, after all. He knew many secrets. He laughed and said, “This involves a certain treasure… an Overgod artifact!”
“Overgod artifact?” Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.
Just from the term alone, Linley understood what it represented. Divine artifacts. Sovereign artifacts. Overgod artifacts! Clearly, there were three levels of artifacts.
“Overgod artifacts are created by the Overgods themselves! Because there are only four Overgods, the Overgods of Fate, Destruction, Death, and Life, there are also only four kinds of Overgod artifacts. The four most powerful Sovereigns are the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction, Death, Fate, and Life. They all have Overgod artifacts. This is why they are the most powerful Chief Sovereigns!”
Linley nodded slightly.
No wonder those four Chief Sovereigns were powerful. So it was because they had Overgod artifacts.
“Eleven Chief Sovereigns… five of them have Overgod artifacts. Aside from the four Chief Sovereigns I just mentioned, the last one is the Chief Sovereign of Light! Although the Chief Sovereign of Light has an Overgod artifact, it isn’t a match for him, and so he’s unable to use all of its power. Thus, he is weaker than the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, but more powerful than the other six Chief Sovereigns of the Laws!”
Linley sighed to himself.
The power of Overgod artifacts must truly be tremendous. There were only four Overgods to begin with, and they were the personifications of their respective Edicts. It was only natural that the Chief Sovereign of Light wouldn’t be suited to handling an Overgod artifact. It was only reasonable that he would thus be weaker than the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.
“Overgod artifacts… where do they come from, and how did these five Chief Sovereigns acquire them?” Linley asked.
“I’m uncertain.” Gislason shook his head. “This happened long, long ago. Even my father and the other three didn’t know the details, much less me. The Chief Sovereign of Light’s is arrogant and domineering, but he has the power to be domineering. After all, he has an Overgod artifact!”
“Overgod artifact…” Linley let out a sigh. “Can it be that despite the passage of so many years, there hasn’t been a second Overgod artifact?”
“No. If there was one, wouldn’t the Chief Sovereigns and Sovereigns go wild over it and fight for it? The Chief Sovereign of Light has one, but the Chief Sovereigns of the other six elements do not. I imagine that in their hearts, those six Chief Sovereigns of the Laws feel very unhappy about this. If they had any chance to acquire one, would they give it up?” Gislason laughed as he spoke.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh. “I wonder what an Overgod artifact looks like. I probably wouldn’t recognize one even if I saw one.”
“Overgod artifacts? Only someone at the level of a Sovereign can make use of them. There’s no point in us acquiring them; in fact, acquiring them would only invite disaster upon ourselves.” Gislason changed the topic. “Enough about Overgod artifacts. That’s a very distant topic. Linley, you say that you wish to go to the Divine Light Plane, but I urge you not to go. Truly, don’t go!”
Linley chuckled. “He might be powerful, but he is still a Sovereign. Would he lower himself to act against me?”
Gislason let out a low sigh, then suddenly spoke through divine sense, “Linley, I will tell you a secret.”
Linley was stunned!
The two were chatting in the hall, but Gislason actually used divine sense to speak? Could the secretly be so great?
“Patriarch, what is the secret?” Linley was puzzled.
“Linley.” Gislason’s expression was solemn. “I’ve always suspected something about the deaths of the four ancestors of our clan!”
“Suspected something?” Linley didn’t understand.
“I suspect… that the killer was the Chief Sovereign of Light!” Gislason sent.
Linley was badly shocked. Gislason continued to speak through divine sense. “Although the four ancestors of our clan were merely Lesser Sovereigns, their innate divine abilities were very strange; their four divine abilities could actually combine into one, with their four types of divine ability energy able to fuse as well and result in an exceedingly powerful supreme technique. Even High Sovereigns such as the Chief Sovereigns were quite apprehensive.”
Combine four innate divine abilities into one?
Linley knew that the divine abilities of the Four Divine Beasts clan were rather unusual, but he had no way of understanding what they would be like when used by the four ancestors. There was one thing he did know; without question, it would have been far more powerful than when Linley and his peers used them. After all, Linley and the others only carried the lineage of the divine beasts in their veins; they weren’t true divine beasts.
“You say… that you suspect the killer was the Chief Sovereign of Light? Why would it be him?” Linley asked.
“First of all, very few people were capable of killing the four ancestors! The four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts… the Chief Sovereign of Fate doesn’t get involved in worldly affairs. The Chief Sovereign of Destruction was on excellent terms with our ancestors. The Chief Sovereign of Death… as long as someone doesn’t offend her, she wouldn’t do anything to them. The Chief Sovereign of Life is said to be quite kind-hearted and rarely kills mortals, much less Sovereigns. In addition, our four ancestors didn’t have any conflicts or opposing interests with the Chief Sovereign of Life. Thus… the only one left is the Chief Sovereign of Light!” Gislason sent mentally.
Linley frowned.
“The Chief Sovereign of Light has an Overgod artifact. He has enough power to resist the combined innate divine ability of the four ancestors.” Gislason’s eyes held anger and hatred within them. “Although there were eleven Chief Sovereigns, since the other six didn’t have Overgod artifacts, there was no way they would be able to kill the four ancestors when they were fighting together.”
“Did he have conflicting interests with our four ancestors?” Linley asked mentally.
“Not a conflicting interest per se, but… back then, our Four Divine Beasts clan was spread throughout the planes of the universe. We were extremely powerful, and there were quite a few people who believed that our Four Divine Beasts clan was the number one clan of the planes of the universe. But the Augusta clan… there were also many who believed that they were the number one clan. If there was a conflict… I imagine the only conflict was one of conflicting reputations.” Gislason couldn’t find anything else either.
After all, the four ancestors wouldn’t have gone out of their way to go offend the Chief Sovereign of Light either.
“Fighting over the title of the ‘number one clan’? That can’t be right.” Linley couldn’t believe it. “The so-called struggle over the title of ‘number one clan’ was a reputational struggle. The Chief Sovereign of Light would kill our four ancestors because of it? This reason doesn’t make much sense.”
“I… I’m not sure either. But logically speaking, he’s the
only possible culprit.” Gislason clearly also felt that his reason wasn’t very convincing. “Linley, if he really was the one who killed them, then he definitely has malicious feelings towards the Four Divine Beasts clan. He didn’t kill us because he didn’t care about us, but now that you are a Paragon… I’m afraid that he would…”
“Patriarch, he might very well be the killer, but he also might not be,” Linley sent. “Also, you said that the other Chief Sovereigns wouldn’t be able to kill the four ancestors when they joined forces. But what if they were killed one by one? If someone truly intended to kill them, it’s possible that they didn’t give our four ancestors a chance to join forces.”
Gislason was startled. He immediately sent back, “The four ancestors were extremely close to each other. They rarely separated.”
“Rarely separated? That doesn’t mean they were always together,” Linley sent back. “Don’t worry, Patriarch. Even if the Chief Sovereign of Light was the killer, would he act against me, a Deity? Even if he was nervous, he wouldn’t be nervous of me, a Paragon. After all, a Paragon is still just a Deity.”
Gislason, hearing this, let out a bitter laugh. “Linley, it seems you have set your mind on going.”
“Right. If I don’t make the trip, I won’t be satisfied.” Linley nodded.
After all, this involved his mother!
Both he and Wharton wanted to meet the mother who had given birth to them! As for his father, his father had always been thinking about his mother.
“If you want to go, you should at least let Lord Beirut know. Lord Beirut is on fairly close terms with the Bloodridge Sovereign, and he knows many things. It would be good for you to ask him his opinion.” Gislason didn’t want Linley to go, but clearly, he wasn’t able to convince Linley. All he could do was entrust his hopes to Beirut.
Linley, upon hearing this, had to admit that this was a good idea.
Lord of the Mists: Book 8 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 5
