Chief Sovereign's Contingency

After Hodan finished his experiment, he had the bandits kill each other to create the illusion of a dispute over spoils, thereby destroying the evidence of his soul control. Although the Netherworld Overlord could access information about the deceased, Hodan did not believe Beirut would go to the Netherworld Overlord for the sake of a group of bandits; furthermore, Beirut did not have the standing to request such a favor from the Netherworld Overlord.

Hodan continued his travels, during which he controlled a level-five warrior and sent him to apply for a position at the Baruch mansion. The strength of a level-five warrior was neither too high nor too low, making it perfectly sufficient for a coach or servant. He believed that given the current situation of the Baruch family, they would not refuse.

After controlling the level-five warrior to carry out the plan, Hodan patiently refrained from interfering, letting the person controlled by the Soul Seed execute his orders. After all, the Soul Seed would loyally carry out his commands, and excessive interference would only lead to complications and unnecessary variables. All Hodan had to do now was wait patiently.

Finally, another Yulan Festival arrived. The Yulan Festival was the most important holiday on the Yulan Continent. Its significance was akin to the Lunar New Year in China; every household would reunite and celebrate. As the lord of Wushan Town, Hogg was no exception, but as a lord who loved his people like his own children, Hogg wanted to take better care of the residents in his territory.

Led by Hogg, who provided the funding, the townspeople donated money and effort to hold the celebration in the center of the town. The event was grand, and the entire town participated, which resulted in the Baruch mansion being left unattended, giving the Soul Seed an opportunity. The Soul Seed found an excuse to leave the celebration.

Hodan remembered that the Coiling Dragon Ring was in the largest old house in the backyard of the Baruch mansion, hidden in a mezzanine of a wooden shelf against the wall. Hodan controlled the Soul Seed to rush toward that old house. Right now, the entire Yulan Continent was celebrating the Yulan Festival, and even Beirut's family was no exception; no one would pay attention to these small corners.

Hodan did not waste time. Controlling the Soul Seed, he quickly found the Coiling Dragon Ring in the mezzanine of the wooden shelf in that old house. When he found the Coiling Dragon Ring, Hodan's heart skipped a beat. Hodan was truly thrilled; this was a Sovereign Artifact. How many Sovereign Artifacts were there in the entire Coiling Dragon World? Hodan was about to obtain an ownerless Sovereign Artifact. Moreover, it was the most precious type—a soul-defending Sovereign Artifact, even if it was damaged.

The Soul Seed immediately took the ring out of the Baruch mansion, found a secluded patch of grass, and dropped it inside before returning to continue celebrating the Yulan Festival. Leaving for too long would arouse suspicion. As for the Soul Seed, he would dispose of it later. Of course, his family would be compensated; after all, to get the position in the Baruch mansion, the person Hodan controlled this time was an ordinary commoner with no criminal record.

While everyone was still reveling in the Yulan Festival, Hodan flew quickly to the grass, picked up the Coiling Dragon Ring, and then, not daring to linger for even a moment, returned to his ice house in the Arctic Icefield. Beside the Plane Teleportation Array, he prepared to drip his blood to claim ownership.

Hodan looked at the Coiling Dragon Ring in his hand, took several deep breaths to calm his emotions, and then prepared to begin the blood-binding process.

Just as Hodan pricked his finger and prepared to drip his blood, his soul suddenly trembled, just as it had when he sensed Beirut's surveillance.

Hodan was struck with terror, thinking that Beirut had discovered his plot to seize the Sovereign Artifact, the Coiling Dragon Ring.

Frightened, Hodan instinctively wanted to activate the Plane Teleportation Array to return to the Celestial Realm. After all, the Radiant Divine Realm was the territory of the Radiant Overlord, and Beirut would absolutely not dare to appear there. As for his position as a Plane Monitor, he would have to find another way later; after all, between dying immediately and not knowing when he might die, Hodan naturally chose the latter.

However, Hodan stopped immediately, because with the speed of a Sovereign, let alone on a Material Plane, even on a Higher Plane, within the distance of thirty or forty thousand miles on the Yulan Continent, Beirut could kill Hodan with a single soul attack the moment he discovered him. Hodan had no chance to escape at all.

For a moment, Hodan scanned his surroundings with his divine sense and looked around his own body, but he found nothing. Hodan could not understand it; he shook his head, thinking it was just an illusion caused by his excessive excitement.

Hodan calmed down again and prepared to drip his blood to claim ownership once more, but this time, the soul trembling was even more intense. Hodan was so scared he didn't dare to move, but after waiting for a while, nothing happened.

"What is going on?" Hodan thought. "It definitely isn't Beirut who discovered me, otherwise I would already be a dead man."

Hodan thought that he was only preparing to bind a damaged Sovereign Artifact. Since it wasn't Beirut, the trembling of his soul told him that the threat he was facing was on the level of a Sovereign.

"Wait, blood-binding..." Hodan suddenly realized. "Could it be the Coiling Dragon Ring in my hand?"

Filled with suspicion, Hodan prepared to try dripping his blood onto the Coiling Dragon Ring again to claim ownership, and sure enough, his soul trembled just as it had before.

Hodan fell silent. Faced with the repeated soul trembling, even as slow-witted as he was, Hodan knew that blood-binding the Coiling Dragon Ring would bring him the threat of death. Hodan carefully recalled the plot of Coiling Dragon, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

Hodan remembered a passage from the original story when Linley became a God: When Linley's soul underwent a transformation, the vast amount of spiritual energy rooted in his soul naturally changed as well. When his spiritual energy poured into the Coiling Dragon Ring, a faint green light flashed across it, and at the same time, Linley sensed a strange power contained within the ring.

When this extremely powerful and surging aura touched Linley's spiritual energy, the power of this aura made Linley tremble from the bottom of his heart; it was too powerful. This aura left behind in the Coiling Dragon Ring was far more powerful than the one left in the Purple Blood Soft Sword. At the same time, the voice of Reding, the Sovereign of the Azure Dragon clan, echoed in Linley's mind, telling him the purpose of the Coiling Dragon Ring and how to repair it.

As the Sovereign Artifact most beloved by Reding, the Sovereign of the Azure Dragon clan, since he could leave a final message ten thousand years later, he could certainly leave behind a contingency. As for what kind of contingency, it was easy to guess: if someone who did not possess the bloodline of the Four Divine Beasts obtained this damaged Sovereign Artifact and tried to claim it, what awaited them was not the status of a master, but a strike from a Sovereign.

A strike from a Sovereign, even if it was just residual power, was absolutely something that no one below the level of Grand Perfection could withstand. Moreover, it had been less than ten thousand years since the fall of the Four Divine Beasts, so the power left inside certainly hadn't dissipated much.

As for the Sovereigns, they didn't look down on such a damaged Sovereign Artifact. Plus, since Sovereigns could forge their own, they certainly wouldn't care about such a broken item; with that time, wouldn't it be better to nurture one that was more compatible with themselves?

As for those at the level of Grand Perfection, they didn't really need it either. If they truly needed one, they could just go to the Plane Battlefield, set aside their pride, and they would have everything. Furthermore, they could get a complete, undamaged Sovereign Artifact, or even have one customized to their own requirements.

Therefore, such a damaged Sovereign Artifact was useless to the high and mighty Grand Perfections and Sovereigns; it was merely a chicken rib. To those below Grand Perfection, it was a trap. As for why Linley was fine, it was obviously because of his Azure Dragon bloodline; this artifact was originally intended by the Azure Dragon Sovereign to be left for his descendants before he fell.

As for why Doehring Cowart was fine when he claimed it? That was because he was only a Saint-level; claiming it only allowed for preliminary use. To truly claim it, one had to be a God-level expert.

Didn't you see in the original story that Linley only truly unleashed the power of the Sovereign Artifact after he became a God? And Hodan was currently a Mid-God expert.

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