Visitors to the Supreme Plane

"Jie Ning, what's wrong..." Arannis and Serina saw Jie Ning's suddenly changed expression and were about to ask something.

"Let's go!" Jie Ning's main body cut them off with a grave face. "We need to leave here first."

It was the first time the two had seen Jie Ning look so grim, so they dared not delay and quickly sped away with his main body.

On the other side, Jie Ning's Life God Avatar and Death God Avatar had already arrived near the Teleportation Array after a few spatial shifts, carefully watching the dazzling light within it.

Soon, the light of the Teleportation Array faded, and a figure appeared before Jie Ning.

It was an extremely tall man, draped in a black robe, his form carrying a solemn dignity like a mountain. His face looked somewhat honest, but when he turned his gaze toward Jie Ning, every movement exuded an unshakable sense of power.

'An earth-attribute powerhouse.' Jie Ning judged instantly in his mind.

"As expected, the Material Plane is so comfortable, without the heavy restraints of Hell," the man said, stretching lazily in the Teleportation Array. Then he looked at Jie Ning in front of him, and upon noticing the two avatars, his eyes lit up. "I didn't expect to run into something so interesting. To think there's someone in this world who can comprehend both Life and Death—two completely opposing laws—and has already become a Middle-God in both."

Jie Ning stared at the man, ignoring his exclamation of surprise, and asked warily, "May I ask where you hail from? And what business do you have on our Bana Continent Material Plane?"

The man clearly didn't take Jie Ning's questioning to heart.

He chuckled, looking at Jie Ning with keen interest. "My name is Stan Bowen, from Hell. As for why I'm here?"

"If you can beat me, I'll tell you."

Jie Ning's expression turned stern. This was one of the scenarios he least wanted to see—the other party clearly intended to start a fight directly.

'For now, I can only hope this guy named Stan isn't too strong. At least, let him not be a Seven-star Demon.'

"If you want a fight, follow me." Jie Ning tried to lead him away from the continent.

"Fine by me." Stan crossed his arms and nodded indifferently. He didn't want to fight near the Teleportation Array either—after all, it was the work of the Supreme Gods, and he had no intention of testing their methods.

Receiving his reply, Jie Ning felt slightly relieved. It seemed the man wasn't completely unreasonable.

Jie Ning's two avatars quickly flew westward, with Stan close behind.

'This kid's speed is strange.' Stan watched the figure of this 'native' ahead of him, feeling a bit impressed.

After all, he was a High-God. Even if he wasn't specialized in speed, he shouldn't be matched by an ordinary Middle-God.

Yet the other's speed was now nearly approaching his own limit.

Unconsciously, Stan set aside any thoughts of underestimating Jie Ning.

Of course, if Jie Ning knew that, he would have held back his flying speed a little.

Above the surface of the West Sea, three figures stood still.

Stan looked around at the calm sea and remarked, "You picked a nice spot, kid."

The sea in Hell was never this quiet.

Jie Ning watched the other's confident demeanor, not daring to be careless in the slightest.

'So far, the divine power he's shown is all Earth Divine Power. I deliberately chose to fight over the sea, hoping to weaken his strength a bit.'

'And I hope he doesn't have any other avatars.'

"Since the place is chosen, watch yourself, kid." Stan admired the scenery for a moment, then flashed a smile at Jie Ning.

In the blink of an eye, before Jie Ning could react, a massive castle materialized in the air, centered on him.

Satisfied with his work, Stan looked on with amusement. "I wonder if this kid can break through my Earth Fortress?"

"If he can, maybe I'll introduce him to Father."

'Damn it.' The moment he was trapped inside the castle, Jie Ning realized his two avatars had been separated, and a powerful force pressed down on him, weakening his strength by at least ten percent.

Jie Ning surveyed his surroundings. This place was like a real ancient castle, with rooms and corridors everywhere.

His Life God Avatar now stood on a central walkway inside the castle, surrounded by tightly shut doors, while his Death God Avatar was trapped inside one of the rooms.

"Reunite first." Sensing each other's positions, Jie Ning's two avatars planned to break through the walls and regroup.

Stan, sensing the situation inside the Earth Fortress, shook his head. "Breaking the rules like that takes all the fun out of it."

"Let me add a little challenge for you."

With a thought from Stan, The next moment, as Jie Ning had already broken through several rooms, he found countless Mud Puppet Soldiers emerging from the walls and attacking him.

Jie Ning could easily deal with them, but the Mud Puppets kept pouring out of the walls endlessly.

After breaking through several more walls, Jie Ning felt the entire space was nearly packed with Mud Puppet Soldiers.

"Damn it." For a moment, Jie Ning felt a stifling sense of powerlessness—having strength but nowhere to use it.

He often used his self-created 'Earth Avatar' technique in Hell to fight enemies, yet today he was being restrained by someone else using a similar trick.

Another strike scattered a large number of puppets.

"Hm?" As Jie Ning dodged back, he suddenly noticed that after this attack, no new Mud Puppets appeared.

As if realizing something, Jie Ning tested it a few more times.

"Sure enough, as long as the building itself isn't damaged, these mud golems won't appear."

"What's this supposed to mean?" Jie Ning had some guesses. "A patch they added just for me?"

His mind turned. First, without touching the walls, he wiped out all the mud golems at once.

The slain golems vanished on the spot, melting back into the castle.

Watching the castle return to its initial calm state, Jie Ning relaxed slightly. 'It seems the other party doesn't intend to kill.'

"This kid caught on that fast?" Stan was a little surprised. "He's quite the observant one."

On the other side, Jie Ning stared at the wall, analyzing in his head. 'With the tactics they're using, if they were up against a normal Middle-God, that Middle-God's divine power wouldn't outlast a High-God's.'

'But I still have some special tricks...'

Jie Ning's Life God Avatar quickly pulled out some seeds, dashing through the ancient castle's corridors while scattering them as he went.

"What's this kid doing?" Stan naturally noticed Jie Ning's actions but couldn't figure it out for the moment.

'Activate.' Jie Ning silently commanded.

Under his control, the seeds rapidly sprouted and took root, then fiercely began draining the Earth God power from the ancient castle.

"What?" Stan realized that after these seeds sprouted, the Earth God power he used to maintain the Earth Fortress was quickly being sucked away by these little things.

If it were just a few seeds, he could still stop them, but now the Earth Fortress was filled with an incalculable number of seeds sprouting.

The quantity was too great. Stan found that in just an instant, his Earth Fortress had already begun to teeter on the verge of collapse.

"Forget it." Stan gave up on controlling his Earth Fortress.

'It worked.' Jie Ning naturally noticed this too, a hint of joy rising in his heart.

The inspiration for his Earth God Avatar's 'Earth Seed' ultimate move actually came from these specially modified seeds.

Once these specially cultivated seeds were activated by Jie Ning's divine power, they instinctively began rapidly absorbing high-level energy nearby—divine power, for instance—and they were most effective at absorbing Earth God power...

The opponent had to actively compete with the seeds for control of the divine power, but for Jie Ning, he only needed a wisp of divine power to trigger the seeds' instinct.

And he still had plenty of these seeds in his Space Ring...

Above the sea, a magnificent ancient castle dissipated into nothingness.

Only two figures and all kinds of bizarre plants remained on the spot.

Jie Ning's God Avatar floated in the air, while the plants spawned from the seeds, having lost their source of divine power, rapidly shrank back into seeds and were retrieved by Jie Ning into his ring.

Stan watched Jie Ning with a pained expression. "Kid, I underestimated you. You Life Rule researchers really do have all sorts of strange tricks."

Sensing that the other party had no killing intent, Jie Ning's demeanor relaxed considerably, but his tone grew more respectful. "I still have to thank you for going easy on me."

Stan ignored the flattery and smiled at Jie Ning. "Don't rush to say nice things."

A hammer instantly appeared in his hand.

"I told you, say that after I've knocked you flat." In a flash, it seemed like countless hammer shadows came crashing down at Jie Ning.

"Then it depends on your skill, sir." Jie Ning's Life God Avatar and Death God Avatar split apart to dodge the attack, then struck at Stan's waist from both sides.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the sea, a figure trembled as it hid in a cave. 'Where did this brat go and provoke such a terrifying guy?'

'I already moved away—why are they fighting right above my head again...'

This chapter makes up for the one I missed yesterday. The paid chapter release will go live later today, so I'm sending the makeup chapter out early.