Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 31, The Number One n


    After Bayer left, Linley let out a sigh of relief as well.


    “Compared to a Highgod Paragon, I most likely would only be able to preserve my life if I had a defensive Sovereign artifact and a soul-protecting Sovereign artifact.” Linley had been rendered speechless by Bayer’s attack power, and the constrictive power of it had been able to cause space itself to twist and distort. The disruptive power exceeded even Reisgem’s ‘Amethyst Space’.


    Upon encountering a Paragon, only someone like Bebe whose material defense and soul defense were both at the very peak would be capable of staying alive.


    “Wait. Even if my defenses are powerful, Bayer would probably still be able to throw me into a field of spatial chaos.” When Linley thought of this, he felt all the more terrified by the might of a Paragon. Previously, Linley had seen quite a few experts who had fused five profound mysteries. Linley had thought a Paragon would be powerful, but not ridiculously so.


    But upon encountering one, Linley realized...


    Paragons, just by waving their hands, could easily cause space to twist and distort, and tear the world apart. Between fusing five profound mysteries and bing a Paragon, there was a massive, qualitative rise in power.


    “Bayer won’te again, will he?” A low voice rang out.


    Linley turned his head to look. The speaker was the big fellow, ‘Reihom’. Bebe, some dirt and dust on his face, said quickly, “Of course not! He is a Paragon, after all; since he left, how could hee back? Even if he came back, I’m not afraid of him.” Bebe’s words caused Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom to all look at him.


    “You aren’t afraid?” Reisgem had a rather disbelieving tone to his voice.


    Actually, Reisgem himself was afraid. If Bayer truly went insane, he could kill Reisgem, Reihom, and Linley, then drag Bebe into a region of chaotic space. The price would just be that he would face the pursuit and attack of the Redbud Sovereign, and would have to forever hide within a material ne.


    Reisgem was afraid, and Linley and Reihom felt the same way. In front of Bayer, they weren’t able to resist at all.


    Bebe...unafraid?


    Stared at by the other three, Bebe let out an awkwardugh. “Fine, to be honest, of course I’m a bit scared. In front of that Bayer, I feel as though all I can do is stand there and be beaten. I’m not able to resist at all. That strange song of his made me lose consciousness. Enough, he’s left, so this is at an end. I hope in the future, I won’t run into that Bayer again. Unless I’m at Grandpa’s level of power...”


    Linley, hearing this, couldn’t help butugh. He then looked towards Reisgem. This time, they truly had to thank Reisgem.


    “Fortunately, Reisgem, you used the Sovereign to threaten him.” Linleyughed with a sigh.


    “Hmph. That was all talk. By the time my mother actually made it here, Bayer would’ve fled long ago.” Reisgem pursed his lips. “Fortunately, Bayer wasn’t willing to go all out for the sake of luar.”


    Linley nodded slightly as well.


    If luar and Bayer had a rtionship that was as close as Linley and Bebe’s, most likely, Bayer really would’ve ignored all else to kill them. Fortunately, the two didn’t have a rtionship at that level yet.


    “Reisgem, this Sovereign’s Might...” Linley only now thought of the canteen of Sovereign’s Might in his hand.


    Good heavens...a full canteen! What a terrifying fortune this was!


    “Reisgem, just now, you just wanted to shock Bayer and let him know that there was no way he would be able to kill Bebe, which is why you brought out this canteen of Sovereign’s Might. Now that this is at an end, you can take it back.” Linley immediately handed the amethyst canteen back to Reisgem.


    It wasn’t that Linley didn’t want the Sovereign’s Might. If it had only been one or two drops, Linley would’ve epted it.


    But this was an entire canteen...


    This was too precious, something Linley felt was too hot to hold. While working together with Reisgem, Linley hadn’t made any great contributions, so how could he receive a canteen of Sovereign’s Might? As the saying goes, if no merits were rendered, none should be recorded. To receive a treasure without having aplished anything? Linley felt uneasy.


    “Eh?” Bebe was startled.


    “Here you go.” Bebe did the same thing.


    “HEY!” Reisgem stared at Linley and Bebe, then said angrily, “Linley, Bebe, what are you two doing? Hmph, if you are going to be so insincere, we might as well just split up the squad. You go your way, and Reihom and I will go ours. You two don’t treat me as bros anyhow. As for the canteen of Sovereign’s Might? I, Reisgem, have never taken back something I gifted out. If you don’t want it, then toss it!”


    Linley felt speechless and resigned.


    “Haha, Boss, Reisgem isn’t the stingy sort.” Bebe snickered, pping his arm around Reisgem’s shoulders. “Just take it.” Bebe was rather unwilling to part with it to begin with; only, having seen Linley give it up, he had to do the same.


    “Hear that?” Reisgem delightedly raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just toss this Sovereign’s Might and go your own way, while the three of us go ours. Or...just keep it.”


    Linley wasn’t the overly polite sort to begin with; only, this canteen of Sovereign’s Might was simply too valuable, and so he wasn’t able to ept it right away, which is why he had acted in such a manner. But now that Reisgem had responded in such a way, what else could Linley do? All he could do was, with a flip of his hand, store the canteen of Sovereign’s Might into his interspatial ring.


    “That’s more like it.” Reisgem chortled merrily. “To be honest, earlier on, when I just reached the Highgod level and hadn’t fused that many of the profound mysteries, I probably wouldn’t have been willing to be generous, even if you asked me to.”


    “Eh? What’s that about?” Bebe said.


    Linley justughed while listening. With Bebe and Reisgem standing together, it was like a pair of youths. Their eyes were both so lively and agile; they looked like two siblings.


    The four of them chatted while walking forward.


    “What my mother said is that I needed to be tempered!” Reisgemughed. “Without me having reached a certain level of power, if she were to give me arge amount of Sovereign’s Might, I would never feel as though I were in any danger, which would make it harder for me to make any breakthroughs. Thus, only after I fused five profound mysteries did my mother stop restricting me in terms of how much Sovereign’s Might I could have.”


    Linley nodded slightly.


    Without a sense of danger, it would be fairly hard to rise in power. Linley couldpletely understand the actions of the Redbud Sovereign.


    “Oh...you have so much Sovereign’s Might. Boss’s Four Divine Beasts n rarely hands out even a single drop of Sovereign’s Might.” Bebe said with a sigh.


    Reisgemughed loudly. “The Four Divine Beasts n? How can theypare to me? An enormous n like that has millions of people, scattered throughout the four great nes. The four great Sovereigns did indeed bestow a huge amount of Sovereign’s Might to them! But did the people of the Four Divine Beasts n learn to treasure it? They did not! Those four n leaders probably never imagined that their four Sovereigns would perish. When the four Sovereigns died...the time came that they no longer had ess to unlimited amounts of Sovereign’s Might! They werepletely dumbfounded.”


    “Once the four Sovereigns died, they no longer had a source for Sovereign’s Might. It would be hard for them to acquire any more. Of course they would hand it out sparingly, one drop at a time.”


    Linley, hearing this, nodded to himself.


    The deaths of the four ancestors did indeed strike a heavy blow against the n.


    “An enormous n like that, whose fame shook the various nes, fell just like that.” Linley let out a sigh. Originally, when Linley had entered the Azure Dragon n, Linley had sighed at how much Sovereign’s Might the n had. But now, he understood that giving each Elder a single drop was a way of being thrifty in using it.


    When the four Sovereigns were still alive, most likely the manner in which the Azure Dragon n divided up Sovereign’s Might waspletely different.


    “The Four Divine Beasts n originally was very strong. However, in the countless nes of the universe, they still cannot be considered the number one n.” Reisgem said.


    “Eh? There was a n even more powerful than the Four Divine Beasts n?” Linley was rather surprised.


    “The number one n is the Augusta [Ao’gu’si’ta] n of the Divine Light ne.” Reisgem said with a calmugh.


    Linley knew a few things about the Infernal Realm and the Netherworld, but very little about the other nes.


    “The Augusta n?” Three names drifted into Linley’s mind. These three names came from Beirut’s intelligence reports onmanders. All three weremanders, and the three of them...all shared the surname ‘Augusta’. Clearly, they were of the Augusta n.


    Back then, Linley hadn’t paid much attention. After all, there were quite a few siblings who weremanders. For three to share one surname wasn’t too surprising.


    “The first generation member of the Augusta n is the Chief Sovereign of Light.” Reisgem said, pursing his lips.


    Linley now understood. “No wonder the n is so powerful. They are the descendants of the Chief Sovereign of Light.” As a Chief Sovereign, one could imagine how exalted a status and how great the power the Chief Sovereign of Light possessed.


    “The Chief Sovereign of Light has many descendants. The second generation of the n has 182 members.” Reisgem said with a sigh.


    Linley and Bebe were both stupefied.


    “Reisgem, are the second generation members all the sons and daughters of the Chief Sovereign of Light?” Linley didn’t dare believe it. In the Four Divine Beasts n, the Azure Dragon only had a son and a daughter, while the Vermilion Bird had only a single child. The White Tiger had one child, while the ck Tortoise had two.


    But this Augusta n’s second generation had 182 members?


    “Right.” Reisgem nodded. “The Chief Sovereign of Light was originally a member of an ordinary race before he became a Chief Sovereign. Thus, unlike the divine beasts who have few children, he had 182. However, these 182 children are not all on the same level. Still, because the poption of the Augusta n expanded very rapidly, and because they had sufficient resources, they naturally produced quite a few experts. However, the Augusta n has only expanded in the Divine Light ne. They aren’t like your Four Divine Beasts n, which scattered throughout the nes.”


    “The Augusta nsmen are very arrogant.” The always taciturn Reihom suddenly spoke out.


    “Eh?” Linley looked towards Reihom. He could feel the anger within Reihom’s words.


    Reisgem sighed and said, “One of my mother’s Emissary’s, Reihom’s good friend ‘Bosley’ [Bu’si’li], was killed by the forces of the Augusta n. Bosley now only has a weak clone remaining. I imagine this time, the Augusta n’s people came to the nar Battlefield as well. If we encounter two of them, we have to kill some of them to vent our anger. Hmph. Forget it. Enough about that n of bastards. They ruin the mood.”


    As Linley’s group of four left the battlefield, they didn’t run, just casually walked forward. In the nar Battlefield, aside from Paragons like Bayer, their hunting squad feared no one.


    But that battle had, indeed, attracted quite a few people.


    On the deste earth, five figures emerged. The leader was a youth who was dressed in a beautiful silver robe, and who had long, dazzling hair.


    “Oh, the Amethyst Rampart. Hey, that’s Bayer!” The golden-haired youth’s eyes lit up. He saw, in the distance, Bayer standing in the sky like a celestial divinity. With Bayer present, the five hadn’t dared to go near. But after watching from far away for a time, they saw that Bayer actually left.


    “Young master Montelo [Meng’te’lo], this is a good opportunity.” Next to him was a callous, short silver-haired man who was dressed in a golden robe.


    The golden-haired youth’s eyes lit up.


    Right at this moment, the golden-haired youth suddenly turned his head to look nearby. There were actually two people, a man and a woman, walking over. “Montelo, long time no see.” The leader, a ck-haired, silver-robed woman said with a light smile.


    “Ranessa [La’na’sha]!” Monteloughed as well.


    “You saw that battle just now, right? Bayer went to act against Reisgem’s group. I wonder what the results of that battle were.” The silver-robed woman, Ranessa, said with augh. “But I’m certain that Reisgem remains alive.”


    “I’m certain about this as well.” Montelo said with a calmugh, and then his eyes lit up. “Ranessa, how about we join forces and go teach that Reisgem a lesson?”


    “Teach him a lesson?” Ranessa frowned slightly. “I know that a grudge exists between your n and Reisgem, but...” Ranessa also knew Montelo’s status. Montelo was a third generation member of the Augusta n. The second generation had 182 members, and the third generation had more than a thousand.”


    Montelo relied on his innate talent and his ability to have a fairly high status within his n. Butpared to Reisgem, his status was far inferior. After all, the Chief Sovereign of Light had too many children. Montelo was just a grandchild, while the Redbud Sovereign only had a single son.


    There weren’t many who would dare to kill Reisgem.


    “Don’t worry, we won’t kill Reisgem.” Montelo said with a lightugh. “I’ll be responsible for entangling Reisgem, while the other three of you, along with my other four, seven in total, will act against Reisgem’srades. If you can kill one, do so. It’s best if you kill them all! Hmph, if we can’t kill Reisgem, we can still kill hisrades.” Montelo’s eyes shed with cold light.


    Ranessa turned to discuss this with the two youths by her side, thenughed.


    The Sovereigns were lofty individuals. As long as one didn’tmit any forbidden acts, there wouldn’t be any problems. Even if they badly injured Reisgem, there wouldn’t be a problem. The Sovereigns actually hoped that their children would suffer setbacks while growing up. As long as they didn’t kill Reisgem, it was fine. As for Reisgem’srades and their lives, the Sovereign didn’t have the time to bother with them, nor would the Sovereign lower her status to bother with them.


    The world of Deities had its own rules. Sovereigns generally wouldn’t casually interfere.


    “Fine. However, the badges we get from killing them are mine.” Ranessa said.


    “Fine.” Montello immediately agreed.


    “Let’s go, then. Reisgem and the others have most likely gone far away by now.” Ranessa said.


    Immediately, the two forces merged and the eight of them stealthily slipped forward at high speed.