After finishing his experiment, Hodan had the bandits kill one another, making it look as though they had fought over the spoils. That would conceal the evidence of his Soul Seed's control. Although the Netherworld Overlord could learn things about the dead, Hodan didn't believe Beirut would go to him over a band of bandits. Besides, Beirut wasn't important enough to ask the Netherworld Overlord for a favor.
Hodan continued his travels. Along the way, he took control of a warrior at the fifth rank and sent him to apply for a job at Baruch Mansion. A fifth-rank warrior was neither too weak nor too strong; he was perfectly capable of serving as a trainer and servant. Given the Baruch Clan's current circumstances, they would surely accept him.
After sending the Soul Seed-controlled fifth-rank warrior to carry out his plan, Hodan patiently refrained from interfering. He let the person under the Soul Seed's control carry out his orders. After all, the Soul Seed would faithfully follow them, and too much meddling would only invite trouble and create unnecessary complications. All Hodan needed to do now was wait patiently.
At last, another Yulan Festival arrived, the most important holiday on the Yulan Continent. It was as significant as the Lunar New Year in China, when every household gathered to celebrate. As the lord of Wushan Town, Baruch Hogg was no exception. But this benevolent lord, who cared deeply for his people, wanted to do more for the residents of his territory.
With Hogg leading the way by contributing money, the townspeople all pitched in, donating both funds and labor to organize a celebration in the town center. It was a grand affair, and everyone in town took part. As a result, hardly anyone was on guard at Baruch Mansion, giving the Soul Seed an opportunity. It found an excuse to leave the festivities.
Hodan remembered that the Coiling Dragon Ring was in the largest old house in the backyard of Baruch Mansion, hidden in a compartment of the wooden rack against the wall. He controlled the Soul Seed and hurried toward the old house. The whole Yulan Continent was celebrating the Yulan Festival, and Beirut's family was no exception. No one would pay attention to some forgotten corner of the estate.
Hodan didn't waste any time. The Soul Seed quickly found the Coiling Dragon Ring in the compartment of the wooden rack. When it found the ring, Hodan's heart seemed to stop for a moment. He was tremendously excited. This was a Sovereign Artifact! How many Sovereign Artifacts were there in the entire Coiling Dragon World? He was about to obtain an unowned one—and the most precious kind, a Soul Defense Sovereign Artifact, even if it was damaged.
The Soul Seed immediately carried the ring out of Baruch Mansion, tossed it into a secluded patch of grass, then returned to the festivities. Staying away too long would arouse suspicion. As for the Soul Seed, he could deal with it later. Naturally, his family would be compensated. After all, to get a job at Baruch Mansion, Hodan had chosen an ordinary citizen with no record of wrongdoing.
While everyone was still celebrating the Yulan Festival, Hodan hurried to the patch of grass and took the Coiling Dragon Ring. Then he returned to the ice house in the Arctic Icefield without daring to linger for even a moment. Beside the Plane Teleportation Array, he prepared to claim the ring by dripping his blood onto it.
Hodan looked at the Coiling Dragon Ring in his hand and took several deep breaths in a row to calm himself. Only then did he prepare to claim it with his blood.
Just as Hodan cut his finger and prepared to drip blood onto the ring, his soul suddenly trembled, just as it had when he sensed Beirut watching him.
Hodan's expression turned horrified. He thought Beirut had discovered his plot to seize the Sovereign Artifact, the Coiling Dragon Ring.
Terrified, Hodan instinctively tried to activate the Plane Teleportation Array and return to the Celestial Realm. The Radiant Divine Realm was the Radiant Overlord's territory, and Beirut would never dare show himself there. As for his position as a plane overseer, he could find a way to deal with that later. Faced with certain death now or a possible death at some unknown time, Hodan naturally chose the latter.
But he stopped at once. With a Sovereign's speed, Beirut could kill him with a single soul attack the instant he noticed him—not just on a Material Plane, but even in a High Plane, despite the three- or four-thousand-mile distance across the Yulan Continent. Hodan wouldn't have a chance to escape.
Hodan scanned his surroundings with his divine sense and looked all around, but found nothing. Unable to make sense of it, he shook his head and assumed his excitement had made him imagine things.
Hodan calmed himself again and prepared to claim the ring with his blood. This time, the tremor in his soul was even more intense. He was so frightened that he didn't dare move. But after waiting for a while, nothing happened.
"What's going on?" Hodan wondered. "It definitely isn't Beirut. If he'd found me, I'd already be dead."
Hodan thought about it. He was only preparing to claim a damaged Sovereign Artifact with his blood. If it wasn't Beirut, then the tremor in his soul meant the threat he faced was on the level of a Sovereign.
"Wait—claiming it with my blood..." Hodan suddenly understood. "Could it be the Coiling Dragon Ring in my hand?"
Hodan doubted it, but once again prepared to drip blood onto the Coiling Dragon Ring and claim it. Sure enough, his soul began to tremble just as it had before.
Hodan fell silent. After so many consecutive tremors, even he understood that claiming the Coiling Dragon Ring would bring him the threat of death. He carefully recalled the events of Coiling Dragon, and immediately broke into a cold sweat.
Hodan remembered a passage from the original story, from when Linley became a god: as Linley's soul transformed, the vast amount of spiritual energy rooted in his soul changed as well. When that spiritual energy flowed into the Coiling Dragon Ring, a faint Azure Light flashed across it, and Linley sensed a strange power contained within.
When that immensely powerful aura came into contact with Linley's spiritual energy, its sheer strength made him tremble from the depths of his soul. It was too powerful. The aura left behind in the Coiling Dragon Ring was far stronger than the one in the Purple Blood Soft Sword. At the same time, Reding, the Azure Dragon of the Four Divine Beasts, spoke in Linley's mind, telling him the ring's purpose and how to repair it.
As Reding, the Azure Dragon of the Four Divine Beasts, had most cherished the Coiling Dragon Ring, he could leave a message in it ten thousand years later—and surely he could leave a contingency as well. It wasn't hard to guess what that contingency was. If someone without the bloodline of the Four Divine Beasts obtained this damaged Sovereign Artifact and tried to claim it, they wouldn't become its owner. They would instead face a strike from a Sovereign.
Even a strike from a Sovereign left behind as residual power was more than anyone below the Paragon level could withstand. And it had been less than ten thousand years since the Four Divine Beasts fell, so the power left in the ring surely hadn't dissipated much.
As for the Sovereigns, they wouldn't care about a damaged Sovereign Artifact like this. They could make their own, after all, so they would have even less reason to bother with a broken one. Wouldn't they rather spend that time nurturing an artifact more suited to them?
A Paragon wouldn't need one much, either. If they really did, they could go to the Plane Battlefield and, if they were willing to set aside their pride, get whatever they wanted. They could even get a complete Sovereign Artifact, custom-made to their specifications.
So this damaged Sovereign Artifact was useless to the lofty Paragons and Sovereigns—a mere white elephant. For anyone below the Paragon level, it was a trap. As for why Linley was unharmed, it was because of his Azure Dragon bloodline. The artifact had been left by the Azure Dragon Sovereign for his descendants before his death.
And why had Doehring Cowart been able to claim it without trouble? Because he was only Saint-level. Claiming it had only let him use the ring at a basic level; to truly claim it, one had to be a god.
Wasn't it only after Linley became a god that he truly awakened the Sovereign Artifact's power? But Hodan was already a Mid-God.
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