Meeting

Sean Barbary had been having a hard time these past few days—or, more accurately, he'd been on tenterhooks.

It had all started a few days earlier, when a group of strangers had arrived on the plane through a strange door.

His first thought had been that the Four Divine Beasts Clan had come to kill him—and that the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns had actually made a move themselves.

After all, as he saw it, the only way to send people to a Material Plane without using a teleportation array was for a Sovereign to travel through the Spatial Turbulence.

But then he realized something was wrong. These people were only Saint Realm beings? If the Four Divine Beasts Clan wanted him dead, they'd at least send Midgods. What was the point of sending Saint Realm beings?

Besides, who did he think he was? Why would a Sovereign bother dealing with him?

No matter how highly he thought of himself, he wasn't so arrogant as to believe the Four Divine Beasts Clan would send a Sovereign to hunt down a mere Midgod like him.

Only someone who had killed Gaiselesen and the others would make a Sovereign act personally. But who could kill Gaiselesen? Even his father, Barbary, couldn't do that.

They were both Asuras, but Gaiselesen had a Sovereign Artifact, an inexhaustible supply of Sovereign's Might, and a powerful body to back him up.

Barbary was superior to Gaiselesen in the Laws, but killing him was practically impossible.

Besides, even if Barbary could kill him, he wouldn't dare. No one would kill a Sovereign's child—not even a Paragon High-God.

Sean then guessed that the Sovereign might have sent those people for some other purpose, such as spreading faith, and that he'd simply happened to cross their path.

As a member of an Asura family, he'd heard a little about the Sovereigns spreading their faith.

He was puzzled about why the Sovereign hadn't sent gods and had sent Saint Realm beings instead, but the Sovereign's affairs weren't his concern.

Still, the newcomers had seen him. Would word of his presence get out? Should he leave? He couldn't decide.

They probably had nothing to do with the Four Divine Beasts Clan, but they knew he was here. Someone might mention it after they returned.

The Four Divine Beasts Clan had influence across every plane. There was no way to know whether they might hear about him from somewhere.

After much deliberation, Sean Barbary ultimately decided not to leave the plane.

For one thing, he'd nearly spent all the wealth he'd brought with him. He could no longer afford to travel from a Divine Plane to another Material Plane.

That meant that if he went to a Divine Plane again, he'd have to stay there. He wouldn't be able to flee to another Material Plane.

But the Four Divine Beasts Clan had influence throughout the Divine Planes. They had a presence in all Four Supreme Planes and all Seven Divine Planes. Hiding in a Divine Plane would be too risky.

Those Saint Realm beings had been sent by a Sovereign, so they probably wouldn't do anything unnecessary. The chances of them revealing his whereabouts were low.

Sean Barbary's reasoning wasn't wrong, after all. Neither Huosi's subordinates nor those who truly worked to spread the Sovereigns' faith would tell anyone about him.

Those tasked with spreading a Sovereign's faith wouldn't be bored enough to go around talking about a young lord from a great clan who'd gone on the run.

Unless the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns were spreading their faith. But countless years had passed, and only the Radiant Sovereign and the Darkness Sovereign still persisted in spreading their faith.

Of course, although no one would voluntarily reveal Sean's whereabouts, that didn't mean the Four Divine Beasts Clan had no way to find him.

On the contrary, when the Four Divine Beasts Clan decided to kill someone, they pursued them relentlessly and never gave up.

At the same time, in the Four Divine Beasts Clan's Underworld residence.

"Elder, Tristan requests an audience."

A blue-haired young man addressed a magnificent room with utmost respect.

"Come in!"

Only after hearing the reply did the young man carefully push open the door and slowly enter.

"What is it?"

An old man with black hair opened his eyes and spoke calmly.

"Yes, Elder. We've found out what happened over in the Water Divine Plane more than ten years ago."

"Oh? You have news? What did you find?"

A cold glint flashed in the eyes of the old man, who was known as the Elder.

"Yes. The young lord from the Barbary Clan—the one named Sean—last used a teleportation array to travel from the Underworld to a Material Plane called the Gorbachev Plane."

"A Material Plane? He's good at hiding, but does he think we can't reach him there?"

The black-haired Elder sneered, his voice thick with killing intent.

The Four Divine Beasts Clan had thrown its weight around for countless years. Anyone who offended them was hunted down to the end.

They were also incredibly united. Once someone was placed on their wanted list, they'd find members of the clan on every plane they fled to.

People had tried to flee to Material Planes before, but none had escaped in the end.

The reason was simple: the Four Divine Beasts Clan could check the teleportation arrays' usage records. There was no way to conceal which Material Plane someone had gone to, so how could they possibly escape?

In theory, the teleportation arrays were controlled by the Sovereigns' armies, which belonged to the Sovereigns.

So, if someone fled through a teleportation array, the Four Divine Beasts Clan shouldn't have known which plane they'd gone to.

But the Sovereigns couldn't possibly concern themselves with such trivial matters. The arrays were actually managed by certain officials in the Sovereigns' armies.

To ordinary gods, those armies were the lofty forces of the Sovereigns. But when faced with a behemoth like the Four Divine Beasts Clan, the officials could only hand over the teleportation records when asked.

The Four Divine Beasts Clan could check the records at practically any teleportation array they pleased. No matter where someone fled, they'd keep hunting.

The matter would never reach the Sovereigns' ears. Even if other Sovereigns heard about it, they wouldn't care.

Of course, there had been people who'd successfully escaped the Four Divine Beasts Clan's pursuit over the countless years.

Many years ago, a member of the Augusta Clan had clashed with the Four Divine Beasts Clan, and the two sides had fought fiercely.

The conflict escalated. Each side called on its elders for help, and the fighting eventually grew into a battle between Seven-Star Fiends.

In the end, the Augusta Clan used its home-ground advantage to gather its forces and kill a Seven-Star Fiend from the Four Divine Beasts Clan, setting off a full-blown conflict.

Bowen, the Black Tortoise Clan Leader, was so furious that he went straight to the Radiant Plane to confront Hanjin, the leader of the Augusta Clan. The clash nearly sparked a war between Asuras.

In the end, however, both sides let the matter drop. After weighing all the circumstances, they restrained themselves and didn't take things further.

That incident enraged many members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan. They couldn't understand the clan leaders' decision, and some elders even went to protest. In the end, they had no choice but to obey.

Because of the incident, the Four Divine Beasts Clan's influence in the Radiant Plane dwindled. The main force withdrew to Hell, leaving only a small number of clan members behind.

But even though they avoided conflict in the Radiant Plane, the Four Divine Beasts Clan and the Augusta Clan still clashed from time to time elsewhere.

Fortunately, the Augusta Clan almost never left the Radiant Plane, so both sides kept their conflicts relatively restrained. This was the only time the Four Divine Beasts Clan had taken a loss in all those years, and its members considered it a disgrace.

It was also why the Augusta Clan later came to be known as the number one clan across countless planes.

Even if members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan refused to acknowledge it, they couldn't change what the public believed.

"The Barbary Clan? They're just an Asura clan. Do they think they're the Augusta Clan? Notify our people near the teleportation arrays and have them set out at once. He's only a Midgod. Just kill him!"

The Elder issued the order coldly.

In his eyes, it didn't matter why Sean had offended them. The moment he'd done so, he'd had to die.

If someone could stay alive simply by fleeing to a Material Plane, the Four Divine Beasts Clan would lose all face.

In the Gorbachev Plane, a spatial portal appeared in midair and slowly opened. Huosi was fully armed, with Adkins and Pusiluo behind him.

The three of them looked rather strange, though. Their appearances had changed considerably.

Pusiluo had become a red-haired young man as thin as a monkey, while Adkins had turned into a burly blond man.

Huosi had put on a mask, completely hiding his appearance.

"My lord, will this really work? They should still be able to recognize our soul auras, right?"

Adkins awkwardly shifted his plump body.

"Don't worry. I've activated the concealment system. At the very least, a Midgod shouldn't be able to see through it."

Huosi pointed at his watch as he answered.

In the Coiling Dragon World, anyone who reached godhood could change their appearance at will. Pusiluo, a Volcano Giant, could even turn into an adorable golden kitten.

What was unique to the Coiling Dragon World, of course, was one's soul aura. Everyone's was different, like a unique DNA sequence.

To address this, the Academy of Sciences had launched a side project specifically to conceal a person's aura. Using their research on divine sparks, they had designed a system for that purpose.

Of course, this concealment could only fool those with weaker strength. At the moment, any Highgod should be able to see through it at a glance.

"Hm? That door has appeared again?"

Sean Barbary had been keeping an eye on the portal for the past few days, so he noticed it right away.

Sean observed it briefly, then withdrew his divine sense. It seemed to be three Lowgods this time. As long as they didn't interfere with him, he had no intention of making trouble.

"They're coming straight for me?"

The next second, Sean frowned and sprang to his feet, warily watching the three approaching figures.

"Who are you? Why have you come to this plane?"

Huosi's cold voice came from beneath his mask.

"You?"

Huosi's matter-of-fact tone left Sean uncertain. Why was a Lowgod speaking to a Midgod like that? What was he relying on?

"I came to this plane by chance, to travel. I won't interfere with the plane in any way."

Sean thought for a moment before replying.

He had plenty of questions, and the other man's attitude and interrogation had left him a little bewildered.

But the man seemed to have been sent by a Sovereign. Under no circumstances would Sean interfere in a Sovereign's affairs.

"Is that so?"

Looking at the man's nervous expression, Huosi knew his guess was probably right: the other man was a young lord from some clan, on the run.

He just didn't know who was hunting him—or whether his pursuers would discover this place.