In the Water Elemental Plane, a layer of milky-white mist shrouded the center of the Cangming Sea.
"Hmm? They're here?"
Hope, who had been sitting quietly, abruptly opened his eyes. A faint blue glimmer flashed in his pupils as he looked toward the Azure Dragon Continent.
Four dazzling beams of light—water blue, pale green, earthy yellow, and fiery red—raced toward the Cangming Sea.
"Reding, you four have come to my Water Elemental Plane. Are you here looking for me?"
Hope gave a cold snort and vanished in an instant. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared as an ice-blue beam shooting into the sky. He quickly rose a million meters above the ground and surveyed the entire sea. His voice rang throughout the Water Elemental Plane.
At that moment, the entire Water Elemental Plane trembled. The Water Sovereign nearest to Hope was the first to sense what was happening, and quickly spread his divine sense across the entire Water Elemental Plane.
"Oh my god, the Four Divine Beasts! What are they planning to do?"
"Could they be planning to fight a Sovereign?"
The four remaining Sovereigns of the Water Elemental Plane quickly noticed what was happening, and their expressions shifted.
"Have we been discovered?"
High above the Azure Dragon Continent, Reding heard Hope's challenge and sensed the divine presence of the many Water Sovereigns. He frowned.
"Big brother, what should we do?"
Lius, the White Tiger Sovereign, quickly turned to Reding and gave him a meaningful look with his pale eyes.
"We'll travel in our true forms and charge in at full speed!"
Reding took only a moment to consider before making his decision. They had come too far to turn back now. They had no other choice but to fight.
"Whoosh—"
The four transformed in an instant. The Azure Dragon, its body glowing with a blue light, appeared first. The White Tiger materialized to its left, its fierce face framed by fur like silver needles, shimmering with a silvery glow.
A scarlet radiance turned into a shower of light. Flames engulfed the Vermilion Bird's wings, while earthy-yellow ripples spread from the emerald-green glow on the Black Tortoise's shell.
"Whoosh—"
As the Four Divine Beasts changed into their true forms, their powerful bodies tore through the space of the Water Elemental Plane, and their speed increased dramatically. In just a moment, they reached the skies above the Cangming Sea.
"Looks like all these years of arrogance have made you four forget your place."
Ice-blue armor appeared over Hope's body. With a movement of his right hand, a long sword wreathed in blue and white light appeared. A pressure that covered the entire world slowly descended.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The four divine beasts arrived with a series of cracks through the air, leaving behind four trails like shooting stars. The four Sovereign's Mights of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire looked like colorful galaxies, forming a sea of stars in the sky.
"You didn't run!"
A flash of crimson passed through the Azure Dragon's eyes. He exhaled an icy-blue breath and looked at Hope as he spoke. His voice, filled with a strange, rippling force, resounded through heaven and earth.
As the sound waves spread, every living creature on the countless islands around the Cangming Sea felt an oppression that seemed to come from their very bloodlines. The various divine beasts swimming in the sea couldn't help trembling.
"You think I'd run from you? You four aren't worthy."
Hope narrowed his eyes. A mocking curve formed at the corner of his mouth as he replied coolly.
The Four Divine Beasts were said to be comparable to Sovereigns, but that was all they were: comparable. The vast gap between a Lower Sovereign and a Sovereign couldn't be entirely bridged by an Innate Divine Ability alone. Hope had never truly taken the Four Divine Beasts seriously.
As Hope spoke, a gentle white glow spread across the sea, covering it in moments and cutting off Reding's voice. The ordinary lives of the Water Elemental Plane immediately felt the pressure lift. They looked up at the sky, startled and uncertain.
"Since you're asking for death, we'll gladly take your Sovereign Sparks!"
Lius, the White Tiger Sovereign, returned to human form. His silver-white tiger robe looked like a part of him, and a blood-red king-shaped mark appeared on his forehead.
In Lius's view, the four brothers had spent years preparing and had accumulated enough blood essence to use their Innate Divine Ability twice in a row. That was enough to let them stand firm against the Sovereigns.
Among the Sovereigns, apart from Oufu, the Sovereign of Fate, who possessed the Soul Defense Supreme Artifact, and Utrade, the Sovereign of Destruction, who was both a Super Divine Beast and a Paragon, not even the other two Rule Sovereigns could withstand two of their Innate Divine Abilities head-on. Hope, the Sovereign of Water, was no exception.
"Roar!"
The White Tiger let out a growl and transformed his hands into white claws. Dozens of wind blades, each a hundred meters long, immediately slashed toward Hope.
"Boring."
Hope merely raised his left hand. A pale blue water shield appeared around him, and a layer of gentle mist instantly turned into a gigantic black hole. It swallowed Lius's divine power, then formed a hundred-meter-long vortex that shot toward the Four Divine Beasts at tremendous speed.
"Form up!"
Reding narrowed his eyes and spoke gravely. He moved at the same time, placing himself in front of the other three. A sizzling sound rose from his body as streams of green water coiled around him.
Although the Four Divine Beasts had claimed not to fear the Sovereigns, they had never truly dared to underestimate them. After all, the Sovereigns were mostly among the eleven most powerful Sovereigns who had existed since the beginning of the world. They represented the truly invincible forces of heaven and earth.
Hope, the Sovereign of Water, had won ten consecutive victories in the Water Elemental Plane millions of years ago, earning an additional share of Willpower. Facing an opponent like him, they had to be extremely cautious.
"Roar!"
"Aw!"
"Rawr!"
"Hiss!"
As Reding and the others roared in their beast forms, a golden pattern suddenly descended from the sky and enveloped them all. A massive golden sphere took shape, and a series of strange patterns appeared across its surface. A closer look revealed that they were all specially designed magic-array patterns.
The Four Divine Beasts' Combined Technique—Four Elements Water-Style Azure Dragon Defense!
Lius and the other two stood side by side behind Reding. Sovereign's Might poured from their bodies, and, combined with their divine beast bloodlines, surged like fountains from three directions into the magic-array patterns. An icy-blue glow flashed in Reding's eyes as he stood at the center of the array.
"Boom—"
As Reding raised both arms, the golden sphere abruptly turned ice blue. Faint green dragon scales appeared across its surface. In a blur, the four seemed to merge into one, becoming a Water-Style Azure Dragon Sovereign.
This was one of the Four Divine Beasts' achievements after years of research: a combined technique. Unlike an Innate Divine Ability, it used a magic array as its core and combined the blood ties between the four of them to perfect four different techniques.
Each technique centered on one of the four—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, or Black Tortoise—with the other three providing support. Once combined through a magic array, each could be used for attack, defense, speed, or recovery. Though less powerful than an Innate Divine Ability, they were still on par with those of ordinary Sovereigns.
The technique Reding and the others had now completed was one of the four: the Four Divine Beasts' combined technique, Four Elements Water-Style Azure Dragon Defense. In terms of defense alone, Reding believed that even a Sovereign couldn't break through it at will.
"Whoosh—"
As the ice-blue vortex swept into the sphere, a terrifying storm erupted. Vast stretches of space shattered with a crackling sound, and the sphere formed by the Four Divine Beasts rushed into the Spatial Turbulence.
"So it's a defensive technique created with a magic array?"
Hope gave a quiet exclamation, then returned to his calm. He carefully observed the magic array, considering whether it could be used to attain transcendence. Rather than use a combined technique, he gripped his glowing blue-and-white sword, transformed into a stream of emerald water, and charged into the Spatial Turbulence.