My Father: Progenitor God Xuanwu

"Bang—bang—" Jie Ning's two attacks struck directly against Stan's body.

The other party did not dodge in the slightest.

Taking Jie Ning's two blows head-on, Stan smiled at Jie Ning, but that smile seemed somewhat chilling to Jie Ning. "Got some strength."

"But you're still far from enough."

Feeling the effect of his own strikes, Jie Ning couldn't help but find it troublesome. 'This material defense is too strong.'

'Both the inside and outside of his body are equally formidable.'

Jie Ning's earlier combo—his Life God Avatar had tried to exploit the all-penetrating nature of Life God Power to damage Stan's internal body, but unexpectedly, the inside was just as solid as iron, suffering no effect whatsoever.

The Death God Avatar's attack carried deathly aura, laced with some corrosive properties, yet striking the opponent's body caused no damage either.

'Should I use a Soul Attack?' The thought flashed through Jie Ning's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

With material attacks, he could still control them, but with a Soul Attack, he had no way of gauging the opponent's soul strength—it was too risky.

'He's practically an iron turtle.' Jie Ning grumbled inwardly.

"But since you're this close, I won't hold back." Stan grinned.

Jie Ning felt a powerful gravitational force surge from the opponent, instantly locking onto both of his bodies.

At the same time, the opponent's great hammer was already swinging toward him. Under this gravitational pull, dodging the attack was impossible.

From the hammer, Jie Ning sensed a strong threat.

In the blink of an eye, Jie Ning's two divine avatars each struck out simultaneously, aiming at one another.

The attacks, one imbued with Life God Power and the other with Death God Power, converged.

The moment the two divine powers touched, under Jie Ning's interference, they underwent an inexplicable change.

In an instant, a thunderous explosion erupted.

For a split second, that force seemed to annihilate everything—as if even the laws of heaven and earth themselves had vanished from that region.

Space itself tore open with countless fissures under the sheer power.

Feeling the gravitational pull vanish, Jie Ning's two avatars quickly rode the blast's shockwave to flee and take cover.

This technique was something Jie Ning had stumbled upon while researching Teleportation Arrays.

Initially, Jie Ning had discovered that the magical runes of a Teleportation Array perfectly integrated the various rules and laws of the elements.

His original intention was to develop a Magic Array that could combine the attacks of his Life and Death God Avatars, achieving a result greater than the sum of its parts.

At best, if he couldn't achieve the fusion of different laws like a Soul Mutator, then at least making the divine powers merge under the array's control would be a major breakthrough.

But no matter what Jie Ning tried, whenever his Life God Power and Death God Power intersected, they mostly ended up annihilating each other.

However, in extremely rare cases, the annihilation was incomplete, and the residual divine power would trigger an 'explosion.'

So, Jie Ning eventually decided to roll with it. He abandoned research on fusing the two powers and instead focused on how to make them explode on contact.

Previously, Jie Ning had only experimented with extremely tiny, diluted amounts of divine power. Today, slamming two full streams of divine power together was a first for him.

Watching the spatial fissures appear, through which he could see the raging Spatial Turbulence beyond, Jie Ning was somewhat awed by the technique's power.

He even regretted using it.

'Please don't let anything go wrong.' Jie Ning prayed inwardly.

He knew very well that anyone who could come from a Supreme Plane to a Material Plane at this time was almost certainly connected to a Sovereign.

If something really happened, his only option would be to flee with his family to the Supreme Plane.

And that was assuming this guy didn't have other avatars...

This was also why Jie Ning dared not use a Soul Attack.

Fortunately, the spatial fissures healed quickly, and Stan's figure reappeared in place.

His entire body was wrapped in a yellow light barrier.

Looking closely, he was now clad in a yellow suit of armor that had appeared from somewhere, the light emanating from it.

Seeing the other party unharmed, Jie Ning finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good one, kid." Stan looked at Jie Ning with some surprise.

"If I didn't have this Sovereign Artifact, I'd really have been bloodied today."

In truth, the attack just now wasn't enough to kill Stan, but it would have been enough to give him a moderate injury.

Hearing those words, Jie Ning's heart, which had just relaxed, tightened again.

'Material Defense Divine Artifact...' Jie Ning felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

He had already started thinking about how to escape.

'Maybe I'll have my divine avatars hold him off while my main body takes...'

Sensing the shift in Jie Ning's gaze, Stan glanced at the Divine Artifact on his own body and immediately lost any desire to fight.

"Forget it, forget it, I'm done fighting."

"I have a Material Defense Divine Artifact and a Soul Defense Divine Artifact—you can't pose any threat to me at all. There's no point."

'A Soul Defense Divine Artifact too.' Jie Ning suddenly felt this world was far too absurd.

Still, hearing that the other party was calling off the fight, most of the worry in Jie Ning's heart dissipated.

Stan looked at Jie Ning with boredom, then seemed to remember something. Frowning, he turned to Jie Ning. "Hey, kid, how do you know about Divine Artifacts?"

Logically speaking, a Middle-God from a Material Plane shouldn't know about Divine Artifacts.

And this guy had lost all fighting spirit the moment he heard Stan mention Divine Artifacts—that didn't look like someone unaware of their power.

"Sir, I have another Divine Avatar in a Supreme Plane." Hearing Stan's question, Jie Ning quickly explained, though he deliberately avoided mentioning which plane.

"I see." Stan nodded in understanding, looking at Jie Ning with a hint of surprise.

"So you have other Divine Avatars. That means these two aren't even your strongest form."

"Father said it's only been over a hundred thousand years..." Stan muttered two sentences under his breath.

Hearing this, Jie Ning understood in his heart. 'Over a hundred thousand years,' 'Overgod'...

After muttering to himself, Stan noticed Jie Ning still seemed tense and broke into a laugh.

"You don't need to be so nervous."

"I have some connection to this Material Plane of yours. You don't have to worry about me doing anything to you."

Jie Ning tested the waters. "The four Progenitor Gods who descended on the Bana Continent before—are they your..."

Stan was startled, as if he hadn't expected Jie Ning to guess so quickly, but he hadn't planned to hide it anyway. "Among those four Progenitor Gods, one is my father, and the other three are my elders."

'Just as I thought.' Jie Ning made up his mind and extended an invitation to Stan. "So Sir Stan is the offspring of a Progenitor God. I was rude earlier."

"Might I ask how the four Progenitor Gods are addressed?" Jie Ning asked, feigning curiosity.

"My father's title is Progenitor God Xuanwu." Stan didn't hide it—or rather, there was no need to. "The other three elders are Progenitor God Qinglong, Progenitor God Zhuque, and Progenitor God Baihu..."

Jie Ning's heart trembled. 'Just as I thought...'

But on the surface, Jie Ning's expression remained unchanged as he warmly invited Stan.

"Why not come to my residence? I'll have them prepare a feast, and I can apologize to you properly."

Stan seemed a little embarrassed. "I was the one who struck first—it doesn't feel right for you to apologize."

"And your strength is impressive." Stan looked at Jie Ning with approval. "You can just call me Stan from now on."

Jie Ning was somewhat surprised. He vaguely remembered that the Four Divine Beasts Clan didn't have the best reputation, yet this guy actually felt embarrassed.

"Nice to meet you, Stan." Jie Ning seized the opportunity. "You can just call me Jie Ning."

"I owe much of my current success to the descent of the Progenitor Gods back then." Jie Ning offered another reason for the invitation.

"Then... alright." Stan seemed to accept the reasoning.

Suddenly, a wine jar appeared in his hand, and he tossed it to Jie Ning. "In that case, consider this my welcome gift for visiting your home."

Stan remembered his father saying that when visiting a friend's home for the first time, one should bring a gift.

The two of them had fought and become friends—that should count as friends, right?

Jie Ning caught the wine jar, initially assuming it was some fine vintage from a Supreme Plane.

But then Stan added, "This jar of Overgod Power—take it, Jie Ning."

"For people like us, if we ever run into real trouble, it's still useful for a temporary boost in strength."

Then, as if worried Jie Ning didn't know how to use Overgod Power, Stan specifically reminded him, "One drop each time is enough. Any more would be a waste for us."

Jie Ning stared blankly at the wine jar in his hands.

'What?'

'Overgod Power?'

'A whole jar?'

His divine sense swept into the jar, where a vast amount of bright yellow Overgod Power was stored.

The jar itself seemed to be a specially refined divine artifact, locking the Overgod Power securely inside.

Instantly, the look in Jie Ning's eyes toward Stan changed once again.

On the other side, Jie Ning's main body suddenly called Arannis and Serina to a halt.

"Alright, stop. Let's head back to the Hall of Life. It's fine now."

"What happened?" Arannis was completely confused, and Serina looked at Jie Ning with curiosity.

"Father, what is..."

Jie Ning didn't explain much. "It was just a misunderstanding. Let's go back first."

"And have someone prepare a good meal."

"Is someone coming to visit?" Arannis grew even more puzzled.

Jie Ning smiled, but the smile was especially bright. "An old friend of mine."

Thank you, everyone. Still asking for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Thank you all.